When One Door Closes, Another One Opens

Katy Perry sings in one of her newest songs, ‘Firework’.

“Maybe your reason why all the doors are closed
So you could open one that leads you to the perfect road”

I’m thinking about doors today. Whether wooden, metal, or screened in, doors protect and direct. Doors prevent us from reaching what lays on the other side. Or, if you adjust your thinking, hide something from prying eyes.

There are doorways to the past and future, avenues taken via memories or when renewing old friendships. A picture contains a thousand words, a trail/pathway into the past. An object, house, car, new techno gadget, might be a doorway to a dream unrealized. One step to aid mankind can create a cause, guide a movement empowering millions.

Seasons of life are doorways. Birth/Spring, Adolescence or Young Adulthood/Summer, Middle Age/Autumn, Winter/Old Age, are seasons, one after another opened and closed, to reveal new experiences, frustrations and joys. These types of doors shut out the cold and hold in warmth. Each phase mesmerizes and becomes a challenging oasis with various speed bumps or the occasional flicker of green light, red light. What we make of each seasons steers us to the right door of the next phase in our lives.

"Do you ever feel, feel so paper thin
like a house of cards, one blow from caving in?"

Are doorways predestined to any of us?

I’ve been wondering about that lately as I remember the peace I felt while reading a book about Zen back in college. Created by Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, Zen combines religious and theoretical texts, focusing on meditation and understanding one’s own nature. The philosophy is difficult to conceptualize but, once it has been, there is great peace attained to the inner soul and mind.

"Do you know that there's still a chance for you
'Cause there's a spark in you"

According to Perry’s philosophy, if we dwell on the negative energy beyond one door, we screen the prosperous crack beaming with light from the next. It is up to each individual to look at life as a road with byways and backroads that oftentimes intersect at the precise moment needed. The universe is connected, mankind is linked, and through it all the mind seeks peace and understanding. And yet, the soul yearns for direction. It is through that direction that legacies are won.

"If you only knew what the future holds
After a hurricane comes a rainbow"

We must be open to these doorways so that we’re not blinded to the reward.

"Boom, boom, boom
Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon
It's always been inside of you, you, you
And now it's time to let it through-ough-ough"

My family volunteered our time this past Saturday in clean up efforts through Disaster Relief here in Northern Alabama. We were thrilled to see so many stepping forward to serve their fellow man. We came prepared to help with our chain saw. Then we saw the devastation. One cannot imagine a neighborhood besieged by hundred year old Oaks, completely uprooted, thrown this way and that, like twigs. But they are there, draped across roofs, fences, backyards, frontyards, cars, you name it. I even stood next to a 10' deep hole created by the 15' rootball of an uprooted Oak tree in a woman's front lawn. What did we joke about? Putting a hot tub there.

A door closed on so many people's lives 2 weeks ago today. But many others have opened. People have rallied. Companies, like my husband's, set out to help. The kindness of others has united lives. As Perry's song is written to include a rainbow after a huricane, so too shall new doors open and voices raise in triumph.

"Baby, you're a firework
Come on, let your colors burst
Make 'em go "Oh, oh, oh"
You're gonna leave 'em all in awe, awe, awe"

Do you recognize doors opening to you? Or do you shut the door and turn away from what’s on the other side, fearful of change or disappointment?