Cowsay #379

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/ There's a trick to the Graceful Exit.  It begins with the vision to       \
| recognize when a job, a life stage, a relationship is over -- and to let  |
| go.  It means leaving what's over without denying its validity or its     |
| past importance in our lives.  It involves a sense of future, a belief    |
| that every exit line is an entry, that we are moving on, rather than out. |
| The trick of retiring well may be the trick of living well.  It's hard to |
| recognize that life isn't a holding action, but a process.  It's hard to  |
| learn that we don't leave the best parts of ourselves behind, back in the |
| dugout or the office. We own what we learned back there.  The experiences |
| and the growth are grafted onto our lives.  And when we exit, we can take |
| ourselves along -- quite gracefully.                                      |
\ -- Ellen Goodman                                                          /
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