“Holding on is believing that there’s only a past; letting go is knowing that there’s a future.”
Daphne Rose Kingma
When my wife and I decided to move from New Jersey to Colorado four years ago, I left with a heavy burden. An abundance of unresolved emotions concerning familial relationships we all deem so very important. In short, letting go was almost impossible.
This week, we were back in New Jersey (only the second time since we moved) for a short visit with family and friends.
I was only back in the Garden State a handful of hours when I found myself yet again plagued by those unresolved emotions and crippled from finalizing an itinerary for the remainder of the day because of them.
Pretty pathetic, right? Actually, it’s a pretty normal thing to feel.
Whenever we return to a place from our past, a page from our history, we’re immediately transported back to the good and the bad; the joys and the sorrows; the familiar and the uncomfortable.
After all, just because we leave a physical location, doesn’t mean the heart and mind will soon forget.
But as a flurry of emotions began dancing all around my head I realized something. I finally realized that it’s okay to let go.
After that point, I found myself renewed by a treasure trove of wonderful memories, while abandoning the baggage I unknowingly brought along on the journey.
While I’d spent most of my life living and learning in a tiny town called Lyndhurst, NJ, coming back this time was truly profound. For it was this time that I was finally able to say with confidence, this no longer feels like home.
Author and public speaker Deepak Chopra once said, “In the process of letting go, you will lose many things from the past, but you will find yourself.”
And what I’ve found is that I’m so much stronger than I ever imagine myself to be.
For I’m still here living and breathing and trying my best to discover how to live the most fulfilling, healthy life possible. And sometimes, that means letting go and saying goodbye to everything you thought you’d never be able to live without.