A Way to Stop, Drop, and Let Go

What would it look like if there was no past?
What would it look like if yesterday never happened?
Imagine if there were no more fights to rethink.
No more regret. No more reliving or rethinking what took place.
No more emotional quicksand or allowing anyone or anything to have an influence in our lives.
I suppose this is what it means when we talk about freedom from self.

I agree. This is a great idea.
I agree that we have to separate and walk away from what happened.
We have to walk away from certain things, regardless of right or wrong, good or bad.
We have to stop, drop, and let go.

That is what this is all about.
Right?

I find times when I struggle with the ideas of old fights and arguments. I think about what I said or what I did, and again, this is not about right or wrong, good or bad.

Whatever happened, happened.
Nothing is going to change this.

I had to get away from people, places, and things. Or more, I had to get away from my past, even if my past refused to get away from me.
Even if there’s an aftermath or a wreckage behind me; I have to learn to leave this where it is, which is behind e.
I see people fail to do this.
I see this all the time. To what avail?
What does this do?
What does anger or resentment do for us?

There will always be something. I agree.
There will always be a sign or reminder. As I understand it, as long as we have feelings about what happened, then we will always look to find accountability.
We will always notice the signs and the memories, especially if we fail to remove ourselves from them.

Blame, shame, fault, guilt and regret.
I talk about this often.
I am no better or worse than anyone else.
I have my list of regrets.
I have my secrets.
I have sins.
Of course, I do.

I know about divorce.
I know about sin.
I know all about the seven deadly ones too.
We go back a long time.

But none of this is about that.
I have dreams. I have hopes and aspirations.
I have wants and needs. I have goals too, which are all simple.
Yes. I say this is simple because my dreams and the rest of the above are not hard at all.

No, dreams are easy.

Do you know what makes them hard?

It’s the work —
It’s the challenges we face —
It’s the people, places, and things —
it’s all the remnants of unwanted details —
Better yet, our biggest challenge is us.
It’s everything we allow to trip us at the heel.

I say our biggest challenge can be our thinking.
Expectations can be unfair.
This is why I listened to an old friend when he told me, “We are in the effort business. Not the result business.”

There is far too much that is out of my control. Therefore, I would be doing myself (and you) a disservice if I allowed the uncontrollable to control me.
Keep going.
Keep moving.

I can never expect to get ahead if I hold the weight of everything that is supposed to be behind me.
But how?
How can we move on?
Isn’t that the trick?

I was told that I cannot be absolved from my sin without true sorrow.
Yes. I am sorry.
I am . . .
Even if I am not forgiven, I am still sorry, which means that I have to forgive myself.

My plan is simple.
I cannot continue to interact with my thoughts that pull me backwards or hold me down.
I can’t give in or quit.
I know what I want my life to look like.
Like I mentioned to you yesterday, I know that there are stages.
I know that there is a process to everything.

I used to work at a place that was not good for me. Or maybe I was not good for that place.
Either way, I’m not there anymore.
This led to a hurtful string of events.
I agree.

I can do one of two things.
I can lick my wounds and think about my losses.
Or I can do things to pull me out of my own shell.

For example:
I can worry about the critics.
Or I can live my life.

I can live in my past losses.
or I can allow myself the right to evolve.

I cannot excuse what happened before.
I can only work on what happens next.
I like that idea.

Or right now, or with you . . .
rather than think about the next thing that could go wrong, I can learn to enjoy myself.
What else is there to do?

I have been saying, “Replace thoughts with action,” for way too long to avoid my own advice.
Life is too short.
Yesterday was precious.
But nothing is more precious than this, you, and today.

Trust me.