Trying to Complete

I have a tendency to try and complete things.

This, one could argue, is a good characteristic to have.  We want to finish things.  We should want to bring things to completeness - in a real sense, success is merely continuing to bring things to a completed state.

But what happens if you are trying to complete things that no longer matter?

I wonder how much of my life is dominated by this, trying to complete projects or relationships that have traveled into my past.Things are that are no longer relevant.  Relationships that no longer have the context.  Projects that no longer have the impact or even the necessity. And yet there I am, toiling away with the bits of my free time, trying to make them complete.

Gardening is a good counter weight to this - in gardening, once something is ripe there is a limited time to act.  Waiting to do something only leads to rotten fruits and vegetables - all of the best intentions cannot make up for the fact that time and bacteria are also on a schedule as well, and that if you do not act, they will.

The unfortunate fact is that this is true for everything else in our lives as well.

Why does this matter?  Because if we choose to continue to complete that which has passed its time, we find ourselves trapped in a past doing the irrelevant for no purpose.  Things change, things move forward - but our eyes and hearts and minds are constantly looking in the rear view mirror, seeking simply to finish that which we have started.

Sometimes, it is really okay to simply let go and say "I am not going to complete this - because now there is no reason to."