New beginnings have been on my mind lately as I’ve watched the maple and cherry trees around town bloom into color. Spring has been a fickle visitor this year, delighting us with its presence only to disappear unceremoniously. Or perhaps it’s that winter has been reluctant to let go and allow a new season to settle in.
This feeling of being stuck in the middle has brought to mind conversations I’ve had of late on the subject of letting go. Like the beginning of a new year, the arrival of spring fills us with hope and anticipation. Watching the colors and blooms emerge all around leaves us with the feeling that something new is in the air.
But for many of us, starting something new means letting go of what’s behind us. And, so often, this is where we lose our way. How do we let go and move forward when the past is still so much a part of us? When letting go feels like losing a part of who we are?
Letting go and moving on is one of the hardest things we may ever have to do. But I have to wonder sometimes, why do we hold on when all that’s left of the past is pain and sorrow, and even, sometimes, anger and regret?
Often, letting go means letting go of hope, the hope that change is still possible, that something can and will still be what we wish with all of our heart for it to be. It can also mean letting go of something we know is gone forever, something that, perhaps, was a part of our heart and soul for so long. How do we move forward when we don’t know who we are without what we’ve lost?