If 2016 were a square knot, then 2017 is a slip knot. Last year I had a goal of letting go of stuff. The stuff that filled the space around me. The stuff that might have some use in the future. The stuff that was semi sentimental or had the potential to be. But I couldn't let go of a thing. Instead of releasing the stuff, I held it and it piled uselessly around me.

Then something strange happened over the end of 2016 and the advent of the new year. Suddenly, the things, the stuff I was holding onto has begun to loosen its grip. I feel an ease in allowing it all to flow through my grasp and permit it to exit my life. Upon reflection of this realization, I've concluded that it has something to do with no longer feeling as afraid of the future or the past. I'm not trying to hold the control of what may happen or what has happened, and am now accepting what will be, will be.

I'm greeting this year with the lightness of anticipation. I'm feeling the space opening up as the stuff leaves my life. I'm experiencing liberation from needing to hold onto things that unnecessarily anchor me in the past. The wise ancient saying, that there is a season for everything, feels particularly true in 2017. For me, letting go of things has seemed to be more a matter of time, than a matter of will.

Time and things are linked, and perhaps that's why we often hold onto things - as if things are the same as time. I hope as you begin this new year, you too can let go of the things that have piled around you, patiently wait until you can let them go, or ask someone you trust to help you say goodbye to the things that hold you in some place other than this new year.