let your heart be light

Can I still say Happy New Year to you all? I wrote 2017 on a bunch of bills today and it felt really strange, but I'm sure it will become automatic soon enough. I had my 26th birthday last week, so as usual, I have the fresh start of a new year mixed with the adjustment of being one year older, and all the hopes and dreams and nostalgia that goes with those days is combined. 

I have several other posts in my drafts that separate different aspects of things I want to start and goals I have for this year, etc, but ever since Christmas I've been I've been keeping a list on my phone of things to give up in 2017. I was chopping carrots in my dirty apron, the snow was falling softly outside the window, and a sweet rendition of 'Have yourself a merry little Christmas' started to play. Tears started coming as I heard the words '...let your heart be light, from now on our troubles will be out of sight.' I thought about how heavy my own heart has felt so often for so long, and how that feeling always accompanies grief and pain and heartache. I thought about the girl I was two years ago, and how light-hearted and happy she was. I know of course that I can never be that girl again, without all these cracks and broken pieces, but I also know that happiness is achieved when we stop waiting for the storm to pass and instead learn to dance in the rain.

photos by In Frames Photography

So, here is a little list of things to try and give up this year so that we can be happier, to help shed the weight on our hearts, and to have more peace going forward.

1. Give up our need to impress others.
2. Give up complaining.
3. Give up our need for control.
4. Give up our limiting beliefs. 
5. Give up our need to always be right.
6. Give up our self-defeating talk.
7. Give up blaming others.
8. Give up our excuses.
9. Give up the luxury of criticism.
10. Give up our past.
11. Give up negative attachments. 
12. Give up our resistance to change.
13. Give up labels.
14. Give up on our fears.
15. Give up living our lives to other's expectations.

I hope this can be a year for light hearts. I hope you take the time to watch the sun set and the sun rise, and that you let the wind dance in your hair. I hope you see that every minute with those you love is a precious, precious thing. I hope you hold on during those times when life hurts so badly, and you don't know if you'll make it another day. I hope you smile more often, and laugh.. hard enough that you snort or spit out your drink or lose your breath. Laugh until your pain fades-if even for a moment, and your heart feels light and free. 

Here's to the good times ahead :)  *clink*

Oh, and Happy New Year,