The Whiteboard #3

The Whiteboard Series 

On my wall, in dry erase marker, is a question for the week.

Inspiration includes quotes, conversations, books, and even horoscopes. This week's question is....

What are you still holding on to?

So let me start with saying it's not bad to hold on to things. There are plenty of things that are worth holding on to. 

It feels like we encourage so much to let go of things. Let go of grudges, bitterness, anger. Let go of your past. Focus of the future. Any of this sound familiar? 

The truth is, I'm a sentimentalist. Letting go of things isn't my style. My homes have been cluttered with movie tickets, souvenirs, art, basically anything that reminds me of my experiences, good or bad. I keep a ceramic red horse a summer camp roommate gave me, and I keep a bottle cap from an ex. All pieces of my personal history, and they all have value to me. I wouldn't throw away either one. 

But, I did throw away physics notes and burn a stuffed toy. The point is, there's a balance. Keeping things that don't fit with the present isn't healthy. Things like clothes, old habits, toxic relationships. 

Letting go can be the best thing for you especially when it's too heavy to keep on carrying it, when it is suffocating you.  And still, letting go of the past does not erase it. It happened, and there will be leftover traces. 

But sometimes you're drowning, and you have to hold on to something and hope it doesn't drag you in deeper. 

And lately, I've been trying to hold on to something. Hopes, beliefs, a sense of purpose. And it helps when someone is holding on to you too. When you know if you reach out, someone else is going to help you up. Those people are worth hanging on to.

We can't go on untethered in this world.