I wanted to take a moment while it was quiet here in the house (my husband took the kids to do some errands) and before we make good on a promise to our daughter to go see the film Happy Feet to reflect on the year that lies behind us. Part of the cleaning up of the previous year includes packing away the memories, savoring the good and letting go of the bad.
Good Memories
We savor the good memories because good memories, like a fine wine, grow far sweeter as they age. Think of the moments and feelings that resurface when you flip through a photo album or when you look at the pictures decorating your walls. I have gotten very crafty over the last year, working on everything from scrap booking to making my own ornaments to designing my own custom frames. These decorative efforts are wonderful fun and they help me to savor those moments.
My husband and I made a long journey this year. The changes and fractures in our marriage were accepted and healed. Some portions were broken thoroughly – in part so that the healing would make them stronger than they were before and in part to keep the fissures from spreading. We tackled a myriad of problems and challenges – mentally, physically and financially. Emotionally, we’re in a far better place as we say goodbye to 2006 than we were when we bid this year welcome.
Sometimes, we lose sight of the fact that when we are in the midst of the storm that eventually those clouds will pass and the sun will shine again. We will be able to look back at the torrential downpour and be grateful for the rain, even as we clear away the debris and repair what was damaged in that storm.
Bad Memories
As for the bad memories, yes – 2006 has bad memories for us. Some sour tasting memories that leave a feeling of acid reflux in the system. These are bitter memories in a way – perhaps they shall someday become bittersweet and perhaps they won’t. But like food that’s gone sour, keeping them in the vault of the mind is hardly going to help them. It’s time to pack them away or toss them out into the trash.
It’s important to let go of all of these bad memories and to cleanse the palate. I can’t undo things that were said or that were done. Those that were said and done to us cannot be taken away. But we don’t have to keep dining on the bitter and the foul, we don’t have to pepper all the days to come with all these troubling feelings and bad memories.
In many ways, there are few things we can consciously control with our own choices. There are few ways for us to overcome the things we cannot control, but what we can control is how we let it affect us. So for the relationships that perished this year, my time of grieving for them is over. My time of holding too tightly to the bitter memory of parting is also over. I forgive those who have trespassed against me and I forgive myself for the trespasses I have committed. I am sorry for the feelings I have hurt and I regret the words spoken in the heat of the moment.
It is time to let go of the bad and to let the New Year be ushered in on a clean slate. So to that end – farewell 2006 and thank you to everyone who has made it another great memory to be savored for the future. And as they say – tomorrow, that’s another day.
Happy New Year.
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