Have you ever wondered why certain things just keep coming back into your life, almost like ghosts haunting you? I think they are the spirits of your unfinished business showing up in new and varied forms to make you face them once again and finally complete what you started.
Complete. That term got used a lot in the days when I was part of a women’s spiritual support group that met every week. It also was thrown around often when I attended all those human potential and personal growth workshops and seminars I used to go to when I was younger and had more time and money. (I was telling someone the other day that all my disposable income and time go to my children now.) To complete means to finish your unfinished business, usually with someone in your life, although sometimes it’s with a situation or a place as well.
Today I had to decide if I would face some unfinished business with my agent. I was given the opportunity to work on a proposal with a client who shares this agent with me. Well, we have the same agent…or, I sometimes have this agent, but I’m currently looking for a different agent for a particular project, because he and I couldn’t see eye to eye on my proposal. Despite the fact that he wasn’t particularly happy with my proposal (It’s a damn good proposal; he’s a perfectionist — and I’m putting it nicely.), he sent me a client. He told this writer that I was his #1 recommendation for someone to help him get his proposal ready to be sent out to editors at publishing houses. And this after he said he wasn’t sure I could ever get mine to be that perfect.
Well, what the hell was this about? I suppose I could simply say that he can’t find another nonfiction book proposal editor and consultant who can do the job any better (because he probably doesn’t have anyone who has yet met his overly-high standards), and pat myself on the back that he sent me some work. I could send the guy packing, and say, “Forget it. It’s too much stress to work with this agent, which is why I’m not working with him.” Or I could say, “Ah….maybe I’m supposed to see that I can do this job for this agent. Maybe I am supposed to see that I am capable of turning out the work he requires. Maybe I’m supposed to heal our relationship by getting the job done…or simply see that I’ll never get the job done the way he wants it and move on without any second thoughts or regrets.” In other words, I can say, “This is a chance to complete.”
And that’s what I’ve done. If the client agrees to my terms and decides to use me, I’ll move forward and complete one way or another — either with a job done to the agent’s liking or not.
I had to wrinkle my brow and then laugh when I saw the email from this writer…and I even wrote the the agent and questioned his reasoning for sending the client to me. But now I see the opportunity for what it is: A chance to complete.
And what a perfect time to do that, just as we move into the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) and Yom Kippur, the Day of Repentance, just as we are supposed to be taking time for introspection and righting wrongs and setting new goals for ourselves. It’s a perfect time to re-evaluate my relationship with this agent and to work through my issues around his requirements and my ability to meet them. It’s a perfect time to let go of my emotions and resentments and…well…to complete and move forward fresh and clean and clear about my intentions.
Is life presenting you with any opportunities to complete at the moment? I wouldn’t be surprised. God’s hand is in everything, and often we are pushed in the right direction at the right time. Now, during the month of Elul, represents the perfect time for completion of all sorts. So, take the time to think about what you need to complete…look and see what opportunities for completion are before you right now. And then…complete!
