A Work In Progress...

 

Hi!

Old stone against modern steel and glass. Innovative, creative art, and simple beauty both from nature and human talent. All of these in a walk encompassing one single city block.

Sometimes, really cool things that can bring smiles to a face that doesn't necessarily feel like smiling are only a few short steps beyond the day-to-day. 

Sometimes, in the midst of chaos, it's important to take a minute, walk a bit, and look around. If we don't take a moment every now and again to breathe, to let things go, stuff can pile up, weigh us down, and eventually become so heavy, we become unable to carry the burden. If we ignore the burden too long it can crush us. 

Our bodies tell us when it's time to let stuff go. All we have to do is listen. 

Stress shows itself in a ton of different ways. Headaches, stomach issues, sleeplessness, irritability, anxiety, the list is long, ugly, and different for almost everyone. 

What I am learning, or, I guess, trying to unlearn, is that our capacity to "suck it up," whatever it is, is not always a good thing. There are limits, and reaching those limits is NOT a sign of weakness, it's a sign of humanity. 

Weight.

Soooo, learning to breathe. Learning to actually look after ourselves, and not just do it on the surface, is harder than it seems. We think we are handling everything fine, we keep doing, we keep adding on to the load, because that is what we have always done.

More weight.

No matter what comes down the pike, we pick it up, look at it, receive it, and move on. Adding it to the ever-growing pile of stuff we carry. Even if we manage to solve whatever problem or issue that's in front of us, we then carry the consequence that stems from that, and then hold onto it because now we consider it ours, so everything that happens pertaining to it in the future, also becomes our responsibility. 

More weight.

As we keep going, forging a path through life, making decisions, good and bad, having things thrown at us that are completely outside of our control, using the tools that have both been given to, and created by us, we discover that some of our tools are faulty... even if they worked in the past, they don't work for us anymore. 

Some of those tools were handed down with the best of intentions, some created as a result of trauma, and some, most of them harbouring hidden malfunctions that weren't apparent from the beginning. Not all the tools are bad. They got us this far, after all, but some have been used far beyond their expiration date, and need to be retired. 

This is going to be different for everyone. If your toolbox is filled with things that still work for you in a healthy way, that's awesome. Just be sure to take them out and inspect them now and again to see if they are still providing the results they were meant to. 

Sometimes, some of the tools, simply become part of the load.

Even more weight.

So. Letting go. Breathing. Really taking care. These are the new tools I'm doing my best to learn to use, to keep. 

Lose the weight.

I think the hardest part of letting go, for me, is simply this. If I stop carrying all that needs carrying, if I put any of it down, who will have to pick it up?

A work in progress, to be sure. 

But, then again, aren't we all?

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May we all find a way to rid ourselves of the tools that no longer work for us, or maybe never really did.