Space for Something New

Every holiday I think about the one from the year prior. What was I doing? Who was I with? This July 4th was no different. In addition to reminiscing about last year, I also took stock of my life. I was reminded how much I've changed, how much my life has changed, and how some of my relationships have changed. There are certain people who are no longer in my life; not because they died (although there are a few of those), but rather because we grew apart. We have become alien to each other and don't own starships to bring us together.

I cried over the loss of those relationships and all the while a little voice in my head whispered about making space for something new. I have a tendency to cling on to things far past the point of being healthy. Alexander Graham Bell has me pegged with his quote, "When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us."

It's important to leave space for something new. Photo by Dylan de Jonge on Unsplash

This week I'm looking at the open door. In terms of relationships, that means I'm noticing the new ones in my life from the past year. Or the old ones that are new again; in other words, relationships where I reconnected with someone from my past. By clearing out the old relationships, by letting them go, I'm making space for the new ones. I have the capacity to nourish what's here because I'm not caught up in knocking on a closed door.

We have that saying nature abhors a vacuum. I abhor vacuums too, but not the ones that clean the carpet. Those I love. I abhor the life vacuums but there's wisdom in acknowledging their importance. Of seeing the beauty in empty space because empty space doesn't last. Soon it will be filled with something. Maybe saying goodbye to old relationships opens me up to better ones. It doesn't mean the love died because for me anyway it hasn't. It just means I'm no longer investing time and energy in cultivating the relationships that no longer serve me.

I'd love to throw in a spiritual quote here or make this post more profound but it's not. The practice is a simple one that we all must learn. In order to make space for something new, we have to get rid of the old, whether that's an object or a belief.

I dream of a world where we understand it's important to grieve the loss of closed doors but also turn our attention to doors that are open. A world where we clear away what no longer serves us. A world where we realize nature abhors a vacuum and thus ultimately we are making space for something new.

Another world is not only possible, it's probable.