And then one day, I realized I had to let go

People gave me advice for years....about letting go of the things that bothered and drained me: finding a way to move on from my tendency of focusing on the bad stuff which sucked the air from my lungs and the light from my soul. I couldn't make sense of what they were saying. Because i felt passionately about certain things which I'd obsess over not being able to fix or make better, losses and failures seemed to somehow magnify and overshadow everything else.

And then one day, maybe 4-5 years ago, a wise person looked at me and said you are trying to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders, and that's not a fair thing to do. I finally realized I couldn't stop hating the circumstances which led to bad situations, because that part I have no control over, and it wasn't fair to keep beating myself up over things which are out of my hands.

Trust me; I didn't make that transition to stop blaming myself easily. It was more ingrained in my brain to feel like a failure than to stand up against that pattern, but eventually I learned this; I could not hold myself accountable for everyone else’s mistakes. It's not reasonable or fair to traumatize myself over the bad things other people do, and although it felt normal to blame myself, I could no longer be my best when feeling so down. That's when I learned to let go....because in accepting there is a broken world out there, comes freedom. Accepting things will not be perfect....IS freedom. We shine our light where we can, and we refuse to let the darkness put that light out. Maybe that's all we can do some days, is agree to keep shining, and keep going.

community first • marketing consultant • advocate for small business • lover

of classic cars • beach girl • believer that "together we accomplish more"