The Shock of an Unexpected Ending

After years of showing up fully, Maria is told her role will be eliminated in six months. She’s offered a temporary project — a way to extend her paycheck, maybe even a gesture of respect for her contributions.

But all she can feel is bitterness.

Everyone knows she’s a “goner.”

She feels invisible.

Disposable.

This is the threshold of an ending — the moment when something unexpected crashes in.

It’s shocking.

It stirs up doubt.

It can cause paralysis.

Sometimes, the most important step isn’t to move on right away — it’s to pause.

To sit in the muck of the grief, the anger, the disbelief.

To notice what is here — not just the sting, but the complicated truth beneath it.

Because sometimes the very things that feel unbearable in the moment — the bitterness, the pause, even the acknowledgement of being valued and let go — become nutrients.

Compost for the soil of what might be ahead.

Endings are rarely tidy. But even in the mess, something is breaking down that can one day feed the roots of what’s next.

Meeting you here, where Maria is, would be an honor.

This is the entry point for Shift Coaching — a place of empathy, reflection, and honest pause before the next beginning takes shape.

This is the entry point for Shift Coaching — a place of empathy, reflection, and honest pause before the next beginning takes shape.