Give up the ghosts...

Everybody has situational or psychological baggage that follows them around or slows them down. Best to jettison it.

 

They can be bad memories.

   They can be the things we fear.

      They can be things we need to learn.

         Or things we should leave behind once and for all.

 

I’m not saying any of those are easy to get rid of – but they all should be considered when trying to be our best selves. Because they all have the potential to weight us down and hold us back. Some started long ago, introduced by forces we didn’t understand. Like being afraid of the boogieman in the basement or the dark places in the closet – it’s not easy to stare them down and overcome the effect they have on us. Like stuff we failed to learn but now must go back and learn – there’s no shame in learning, no matter when it occurs. Like things we did that in hindsight now embarrass us – be open and candid about them and don’t repeat them. Or things we said, or someone said to us, that now seem ill-considered – it’s never too late to say you’re sorry. If you want to be all you can be, make peace with your past so you can fly into the future today.

 

Chloe Anthony Wofford “Toni” Morrison (1931–2019): American novelist (The Song of Solomon); winner of the Pulitzer Prize (1987), and the Nobel Prize in Literature (1993).