If Life Was A Movie

Sometimes I wish life was a movie so I could skip ahead to the part where the broken relationships and crushed dreams make sense. But life isn’t a movie and I don’t have a script that will tie together all the loose ends. The past month has involved a lot of letting go. Letting go of friendships that caused more stress than joy. Letting go of stuff that cluttered my space. Letting go of negative thinking patterns. Letting go of past dreams to make room for new ones. Letting go of the desire to control everything. I always thought that if you really love something, you should fight for it. And keep fighting for it. Even after everyone else involved surrenders. When I love something, the last thing I ever want to do is let go. I want to hold on with everything I am, for as long as I can. Then I heard a quote that changed my thinking.

“Don’t let your memories be greater than your dreams.”

I read that statement several times, absorbing the words as I placed that lens on my life. Was I dedicating more energy to fixing the past or to developing new dreams? I didn’t like the answer I came up with. I realized that maybe letting go has nothing to do with weakness. Maybe letting go is saying I love you. To people of your past, it says I love you enough to trust that you’re making the right decisions for you, even if that means I’m not part of your life anymore. To yourself, it says I love you enough to set you free and allow you to build new memories. If my life was a movie and I could fast forward to the happy ending, I’d be missing the best parts. With every hello and good-bye, every success and failure, every unexpected blessing and broken promise, we learn. We learn, we grow, we change, and we take the steps necessary to get us to the right place.

“Every breath is an opportunity to receive and let go. I receive love and I let go of pain.”