More and more lately I’m looking around and wanting to let things go. Personal things. (Well, aren’t they all personal things?) OK, some very personal things. Journals, things related to past loves, books, and of course, clothing. There’s always clothing we could lose. I really am not someone with a lot of clothing, yet I want it gone.
The journals. As mentioned elsewhere in this blog, I journal almost daily. I write in the vein recommended by Julia Cameron of An Artist’s Way, and use it as kind of a morning dump. Get all the crap out of my head that’s swimming around unpleasantly so I can move on with my day. I find it quite healing, comforting, and if nothing else, it keeps me writing something. When I’m done one journal, I move on to the next that I have recently purchased. (TJ Maxx, BTW, always has a great selection of journals, if interested.)
The completed journal sits on a shelf with numerous others. But why save them? So today I was in the mood to skim through one of them to see if, indeed, I had left any pearls of wisdom behind before sending it to the great beyond, aka a dump of its own. Skimming reveals certain patterns – things that I have been struggling with over the time period it covers, my search for answers, where I find clues, what I’ve accomplished, what’s made me happy, where I’m going, and what’s keeping me from getting there. It yielded one important piece of information about a medical issue, so I ripped that page out.
And now I can give this journal the old heave-ho. There’s several more that I think will get the boot in the next day or so. It will open up a small bit of physical space, but more importantly, it will open up space in me. Letting go is always helpful. Not to say we shouldn’t preserve some memories, but at a certain point, they’re not even us anymore. Do they matter? Do they all matter? or can we just let some go?
Because when we let go, we make room for what we want to come in. We are always in transition, at some times more intensely than at others. But when we’re looking to grow and change, making room in our hearts, our minds, and even the actual space in our homes can be welcoming. It can be a little scary. It can be very good. We have to be willing to … just … let … go.
Still A Dreamer 
Making space for new things to come in can be really tough. It’s not always the physical things that are the hardest to let go of.
I sympathize with and currently share your state of mind as presented here.
I don’t journal as such but I do write every day. At times I’ve used my blog in the way you apparently use your journals.
Hi.
Hope wonderful positive things come into your cleared spaces. 🙂
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For sure, the physical things are easier to get rid of, and they can be a challenge. But letting go of old crap – habits, ideas, mindsets, emotional attachments no longer needed, ways of thinking – by far the greater challenge. There’s so much I want to do and I’m both watching and experiencing the internal push and pull in making that space, in allowing what I need to come in and help me really bloom in the way I hope to. Walking that path together, we are. 🙂
Hi to you, too, and I hope the exact same for you.
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This is a good time of year for letting go. Halloween was the old end of the year when everything we didn’t need was stripped away before going into the dark of winter – as you say, to free up space for other things. I’ve often considered getting rid of old journals – I don’t write them for anyone else and wouldn’t want anyone to read them, so I do sometimes wonder what their purpose is – but so far, I haven’t been able to let go of them 🙂
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I hadn’t thought of that – you’re absolutely right about this time of year being a great time for clearing away, getting ready for winter. So far, I have two for the trash pick-up tomorrow. Journals are for clearing out the cobwebs (our own), too, but once written and having sat awhile, they’ve served their purpose. I do have a little sadness letting them go, but they’re no longer helping me move forward and currently serve no other purpose. Maybe I’ll inspire you. 🙂
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Clearing out the cobwebs, I like that 🙂
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Hey, a little seasonal humor. 🙂
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