Every experience has a boundary. A conversation begins and ends. A neighborhood gives way to another. A season changes almost imperceptibly until one day the previous one is unmistakably gone. We tend to notice beginnings because they announce possibility, while completion often becomes visible only after we have already crossed beyond it.

Much of ordinary life arrives already assembled. Family traditions, attitudes toward money, ideas about work, ways of celebrating, definitions of success, even the objects kept in a kitchen drawer can pass from one generation to the next without much discussion. Inheritance is rarely limited to property.

There is often a brief moment after getting what you wanted when everything feels complete. The purchase arrives. The goal is reached. The good news comes through. Then, almost without notice, attention begins moving again.

Some days, everything seems to happen at once. Messages arrive before the last one has been answered. One piece of news leads immediately to another. A decision creates three new conversations, and information moves faster than there is time to absorb it.