for noticing what you are carrying out of habit rather than desire. An old plan can remain emotionally important long after you know you would no longer choose it. A relationship can continue taking up space because you feel guilty about what happens if you step away. A timeline can keep making you feel behind even when the life you are comparing yourself to is no longer one you actually want.

Release does not always require a dramatic ending. It can be deciding you are done measuring your present against an imagined past. It can be allowing someone else’s life to stop being your responsibility. It can be refusing to treat age as evidence that an opportunity has passed you by. Before August 27, ask yourself what you would stop carrying if you knew for certain that letting it go would not cost you the future meant for you.

~c.w.

memories of calm waters….

inquiry for today~ where does your hope find you?

a matter of love….

We don’t lose ourselves all at once. And we don’t return all at once either.

We come back in pieces. In pauses. In choices that feel small but are deeply self-respecting.

~Beronica Parham