In Light Of Letting Things Go

One way to begin the letting go process is to ask yourself, “If I let this go, what will it make room for?”

The all-embracing answer to this likely always translates to something of equal or far greater value.

But it takes awhile for most of us to logically accept this answer and allow the process of letting things go the time needed to come to fruition.

An example of this might be that you’ve been holding on to some words that you’ve written over the course of your creative life but you haven’t thought of them in years.

You love the words. They once inspired not only you, but others too. You remember the day you wrote them and what went on behind the emotional scenes that inspired you, but you know that you probably won’t feel that way ever again.

Maybe the meaning, or the message behind the words is slightly off these days, and is a bit out of style to your current demeanor. They no longer inspire you, or others, the way that they once did.

But if you let them go, you clear some space in the creative closet of your heart and soul, and it becomes a place to hang new words that you find might inspire, not only you again, but as well as others too.

Maybe the message they convey will fit you better and be more in style with your own creative originality. It will be a better look for you all around.

It’s a definitive metaphoric example, I know, but the idea is the same in an even more perplexing way of getting the message out loud and clear. Think of an echo, bouncing around the empty chambers of humanity's heart and soul.

You see, when we let something go, the love that we had for it is never truly lost, it just eventually transforms itself into something else, like an unforgettable memory.

This is the truth because now we have made space for something new to come along. Memories don’t take up as much space as unhealthy attachments do. This my friends, is absolutely true.

It is considered by the author that it is important to keep in mind that even though we have to let go of something that we cared so deeply for, we don’t have to put away the precious memory of what it brought to our life at the time that it was meant to make us happy.

Letting go does not have to mean forgetting. It means releasing something’s ability to affect you in a negative way so that when you are remembering it you are not bombarded with the not-so-positive feelings of what could've been.

Can you miss something forever?

Abso-fucking-lutely.

Does something feel empty inside after letting go of something you’ve held on to for so long?

This too, touches on an absolute yes, but you must also keep in mind that in that emptiness you now have room for all the positive things which need that space to hang up what’s truly meant for you.

Letting go of something once so dear to us is really hard to let go. Trust me when I say, I understand wholeheartedly.

Especially when you have to let go of something you truly thought made a positive and healthy impact in your life, and others too.

But even by thinking that, you give way too much power to your expectations and that power gets in the way of what the universe has always had in store for you. So by letting go of the old emotions that are doing nothing but taking up space in your heart, you allow what’s meant for you to eventually make its way to you.

Letting go can seem so much more painful when we feel “stuck”. It often seems impossible to do, but the truth is if you reach this point, it means that you’ve been holding on to tight, trying too hard to make things work in your favor, or to reach the end goal. As much as it hurts, you just have to let go of everything you ever thought you knew.

Though, it does sometimes feels like we’ve given so much of ourselves, or come so far that if we let go now, it will feel all feel like a waste of time given the time, effort, and the creative energy we invested so dearly in it.

But nothing is ever a waste of time, even if it feels like it is, we are here to make mistakes, to fail, and learn the lessons from such things that are meant teach us and help us grow as individuals. But if we hold on to those mistakes for too damn long they become toxic to our overall well-being.

And if we keep holding on to toxic things because we feel we’ve already done too much or it’s not too late to change things, we are only setting ourselves up for a miserable life of unbearable pain and suffering.

A Positive Notion

There has always been forward momentum in letting things go. It's a positive notion that brings us more serenity than staying stuck in stagnant situations that weigh a bit heavier on our peace of mind each and every day.

It's called moving on.

It’s the same notion that when one door closes another one opens. Life opens new doors for us all the time; imagine you are a key and there are multiple doors in front of you and you think that said key can only open one door.

But that's not true. Because we are a master key so to speak, and we carry the choice of being able to open up and lock any of the doors that stand in front of us.

We are all blessed with so much potential, so many talents, so many creative things to give back to the universe. We have the ability to open so many doors throughout our lives, and we do. But we also shut many doors throughout our lives that maybe we shouldn't have shut, and just as well, we leave some open for way too damn long. But when we do make the choice to finally lock some doors, just label the beautiful memory upon the front of it as to not forget it, and maybe hide the key in a safe and sacred space just in case, should you see fit.

After doing this though, you will be surprised by the all the other doors that are waiting to be opened by you and only you, as to create so many more cherished memories.

And when you finally let something go, just know there will be something more beautiful waiting with patience behind another door to fill the now empty space.

My empty space just happens to fill back up with more words that happen to string sentences together in paragraphs with questionable grammar, like the ones that follow.

A Little Dream

Sometimes I have this dream. The same dream over and over. A silhouette of someone is carrying something with both hands upon its chest, The silhouette walks up to me and says, here you’ve forgotten something and drops it right front of me. Sometimes I pick it up and it’s nothing but pain. And sometimes I pick it up and happiness spills all over me, but sometimes I keep walking right on by it, paying it no attention whatsoever, only to have the silhouette chase me down trying to give it to me, which is when I wake up just before sunrise, drenched in a cold and agonizing sweat.

I am being chased by what I sometimes try and throw away? By what I must let go of?

It sometimes seems to be that way.

But I’m not the only one being chased by what I have thrown away. By what I must let go. And I’m not the only one who’s thrown something away, or who’s lost something that I thought meant the world to me. His shoes, her shoes, we all have our own issues.

I'm aware that there will be more pain, just as there will be more happiness, and I would rather feel said happiness by being fully present for it, than staying stuck in the stagnancy of agony that I’ve held on to for so long. So I've no choice but to let it all go.

As my mind starts to wake up, I just lay there staring at the ceiling fan spinning around in a spiral pattern. It's an ordinary ceiling fan, nothing special at all. I rub the sleep out of my eyes and tell myself to let go of the aching agony and the once upon a time dream, and of trying to figure out everything.

Eyes still closed, I listen to the movements of the fan within my thought process. I might very well have already let it all go, but my mental capacity has been filled to the brim of what went wrong for way too damn long.

And to be aware of this might mean that I am in the midst of a change. Because I have to change my ways, and the only way to do that is to let it all go.

Yes, there are some days I'm not sure if I can muster the mental strength. But today is not one of them, and neither will tomorrow be either, or the next day and all the days after that.

Nothing, or no one can help me, especially holding on to people and things just for the sake of me and my dreams. As far as I can see in the darkness, any expectations that I have are just something I hold on to, in order to fill the void as far as I can see. And that void is simply a void. I’ve spent a lot of time in that void throughout my life, put everything I held on to into it. And just like all the times before, I had to force myself to let it all go and adjust my vision to the surroundings directly in front of me, in order to let my creative light back in.

And now here I am, right back where I began and I have no choice but to accept it. No one is able to fill that void, except me. No one is coming to weave my dreams for me—it’s my purpose to creatively weave my own dreams, and not for the sake of others dreams.

It's what I have to do. Such dreams should not hold so much power over me, or others whatsoever, but if my creative approach is to have any meaning, letting go is what I have to keep doing to make the vision I have a reality without over thinking it.

I have to let go of all the failures and the agony that accompanies them, in order for what's meant for me to bloom into something more beautiful than I thought it could ever be from all of the damn wounds.

Hell, we all have too.

Waking Up

As dawn fast approaches, I give up trying to get back to sleep altogether. I throw my most trusted hoodie on, make my way to the coffee maker, smash the brew button with my thumb. I pour a cup into my dragon mug, and head outside, just to soak up the beautiful February morning.

The sky grows brighter by the minute. It has been a long time—roughly a year or so—since I have been able to truly see, or even pay any real attention to the immaculate sunrises that often grace the Western Nevada skies.

At one end of the sky a line of silver appears, next, a thread of blue slowly shows itself too, like blue ink on a blank sheet of paper I think, as it spreads like waves of an ocean slowly across the horizon.

If you put together all the shades of blue in the world and picked the bluest epitome of blue, this is the color that a bluebird would choose.

My hands fall away from my mind, and I just stare at the scenery, my mind, heart, and soul as blank as a fresh canvas.

The candlelit sun plays peek-a-boo with the day ahead just above the horizon, and the blue sky is swallowed up by sunlight.

A single cloud hangs above, a pure white cloud, its edges distinct as they come with a touch a grey. It's a cloud so sharply etched with meaning a man could write his name on it.

Yes indeed, a new day had dawned alright. And in the light of letting things go, what this day will bring, I have not a damn clue.

But I’m going to make sure it‘s fucking beautiful.

And so you the reader we'll see, some endings are not bad; sometimes they are not even endings at all— just the dawn to a brand new beginning.

Til the next time,

Ryan Love