Letting Go of the Old Year

When I would spend my summers working at the Boy Scout Camp, we would often squander our Saturdays by running through the high ropes course. A high ropes course is a series of obstacles that one has to tackle usually about 40 feet above the ground. One of the challenges that I always struggled with was a series of rings across a high wire. You would hold on to one ring as you shuffled across the wire, yet you could not grab the next ring without first letting go of the ring you were holding on to. As I had seen many before me do, if you reached too far without letting go of the old ring, you would not be able to grab the new ring often resulting in falling off the course.

An important part of welcoming the New Year has to do with letting go of the old year. I find it important for my own growth to release the old year by looking back at who I have become and what I plan on changing in the upcoming year. Yet, just like on the ropes course, most people struggle with letting go of the old ring which provides them stability at the moment, in order to be able to reach for the new ring. The New Year is always ushered in with the Christmas Season, a season of new life and redemption. This is important because the New Year becomes a chance for us to start all over with a clean slate.

Yet to truly release the old year and move on to the New Year it is important for us to learn from the past. I challenge all of you this year to really look back and learn and grow. Look back at what you have accomplished and how that made you feel and if you had to do everything all over, what you would do differently. Ask yourself what you are grateful for and what is missing in your life. When we begin to fully understand our previous year, we are able to let go and grab the year ahead better prepared and ready for the challenges and obstacles ahead.