Endings First, Beginnings Second.
January 1, 2017
We talk a lot about new beginnings this time of year- how great they are, how exciting, how shiny.
But what we often fail to remember is that in order to experience them, something else must first end.
This past summer I went tree walking with my Girl Scout troop. I’m afraid of heights. To advance my position to the next tree, I had to pick up the new rope, and in order to do that, I first had to put the old rope down. In order to move forward, I first needed to let go.
The New Beginning is sexy. I can envision my 2017 resolutions and intentions–my new-and-improved-self–and it makes me feel good. But for each intoxicating new beginning, there is an equally terrifying ending. In order to become my new and improved self, I must first choose to let the old “me” go. And that’s scary.
Letting go involves loss.
I have to give something up. Even if whatever I’m giving up is no longer serving me, as humans we still want to keep it. You see, what I am clutching so tightly is familiar to me, and it is mine. It’s like my rope up in the trees- I trust it. It’s held me up through my last journey. What if the new one… doesn’t?
Letting go involves trusting yourself.
Only then can we let go of the decisions we’ve made (because last I checked no matter how much time I replay something in my head I can’t undo that it happened);
Only then can we let go of people who cannot be what we want them to be for us (or the knowledge that we cannot be for them what they want us to be);
Only then can we let go of things we think we SHOULD do, NEED to do, and HAVE to do.
Letting go feels hard, because it is. But the new story, the new YOU, is so, so worth it.
#EndingsFirst #BeginningsSecond #YesYouCan