Let Yourself Outgrow People

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. ~Anais Nin

2020 has made crystal-clear how long overdue I was for outgrowing people.

We have all white-knuckled something this year, in the hopes that it would bring a bellwether of normalcy and stability. We knew that holding onto something that wasn’t working anymore was not the right path forward. And yet, with every layer that lifted, with every distraction removed, with more and more of our creepy-crawlies exposed, we were determined not to see. We held fast to our stories, our relationships, and the life situations we’d created, and kept ourselves going by dutifully replenishing the stemware we held in our hands, zoning out to Netflix, or taking full advantage of our Prime membership.

Many people in my life have come and gone this year, mostly because I’ve been able to shed the scales on my eyes, and see things for what they truly were. I’ve become intimately acquainted with long-ignored aspects of my depths, and this new awareness has made me see how much I’ve over-bridged to others at the very real sacrifice of my needs, wants, and desires. Thankfully, gratefully, they’re starting to come back, delicately, borne in on teeny tiny fairy wings, and as they surface, they are making it clear to me that they will no longer be ignored…