I Don't Know Why You Say Goodbye I Say Hello

Today begins a New Year. 

Today begins a new chapter in our lives.

Let's make it a good one...

It can be lovely to take some time out of your day to simply reflect on the year that has so quickly been and gone. It's funny because I can remember last New Year's as if it happened only a week ago - how fast time seems to tick along.

Take a moment to think of the good moments, the sad moments, the lesson's you've learned. Write down everything you want to take with you into the New Year. Write down everything you want to leave behind in 2017.

It can also be lovely to take some time out of your day to just dream for the year ahead. Write a 2018 bucket list, write a goal for each month, simply just dream and believe that 2018 will be the best year yet. Go wild with all the things you want to see and do.

For I promise you 2018 will be a rad year of bravery and courage and more dreams coming true than ever before.

Because I'm not quite sure how 2017 went for everyone else, but for me, well, I'll call it the Year of Goodbyes.

There were too many unwanted, unexpected, cheerless goodbyes this year.

I saw this quote yesterday and it said:

"In Sweden, we say that to say good-bye is to die a little."

And so true that is. For with each goodbye, it felt as if I was sorta like a butterfly... being hit and run over by a massive bus, or maybe a tank, maybe one after the other, multiple times.

I hate good-byes. I'm terrible at them. I prefer see you later to goodbye...

I trip at the sound of goodbye.

It's so final. A never see you again, goodbye.

Anyone who's heard me hanging up the phone after talking to someone (or has been on the other end of the line) will see my hatred of goodbyes to be true; I can never quite hang up first. In hugs, I'm always the last to let go. Letting go, lets say, is not my forte. 

Goodbyes really do take it out of you. They really do take a part of you, so that you are left simply, dying a little. They leave you a little broken.

The same goes for endings, I hate endings. At one point near the end of this year I was reading five different books...I just couldn't bear to finish any. I just couldn't bear another ending. 

There were too many endings, too many goodbyes this year.

But that's okay. It has to be okay. It is just life. 

As I said, I'm not too sure what 2017 was like for everyone else, but for anyone else who felt left a little tired, a little bruised, a whole lot of scared...

...just close your eyes, and please understand, that you are still alive and young, your heart is still beating and the universe is so endless and everything will be okay.

And there won't always be goodbyes.

Turn it around and say instead, see you later and keep believing in the power of hello. Because what looks like the end is always a new beginning.

2017 was a year indeed.

Now it's time to close that chapter.

Learn from the mistakes - and never make the same mistake twice. Leave no page of 2017 dog-eared. It is over. It is done. You cannot go back. You cannot look back. It may be the hardest thing you've ever had to do...but it's time now, to turn away and move on. Move forwards, onwards and upwards. It is the only way. This is me right now, with each new word I write, I am already creating my new story; my new chapter full of love, hope and many adventures. With each word I write, I let the past go.

I hope you can do the same.

Know also, that seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years - are all simply just a human construct, used to organise time. And of course they are helpful, to get things done, to make society run, but really, all we have is now.

All we have is this very moment - maybe a few unraveling hours ahead if we're lucky.

So it's best to just sit back and relax into where you are. Just breathe it in. Right now, as the clock ticks towards the metaphorical end of 2017 - you are exactly where you need to be. Have patience, everything will work out just how you hoped. Choose peace now, not worry.

The past is over and done - you cannot change it. But you are not powerless because RIGHT NOW you have the choice to be who you want, to do what you want. You can CHANGE YOUR LIFE right now. 

THIS is your power.

YOU are your power.

We really ever have only one moment - so live day by day from now on. Make the choice of how you want your life to be. Get so lost in becoming who you want to be, in doing what you want to do RIGHT NOW, that you forget the ache of the past; that your fears of the future evaporate into a rainbow filled air.

There are five simple things I hope you can take with you into the New Year:

1. Live moment by moment. Choose to be where you are RIGHT NOW; then you'll see the beautiful little things, then you'll see just how remarkable each breath you take really is. If today was your last day on earth, how would you live it?

2. Be grateful for every moment of your life. Cherish your family, your friends, the world around you.

3. Express, express, express! Be who you are and say what you feel, there is so much courage in that.

4.  Always believe in yourself and be the one who always keeps trying, no matter how many goodbyes you have to face. Do not let the world harden you up, rather let the circumstances of life make you more open, more kind, more gentle.

5. Lastly ask yourself: what you would do if you were unafraid? And now, let 2018 be the year of going and doing it. 

Remember too, as you begin to write a new chapter of your life, you only ever look back to see how far you've come; to inspire you to see how far you'll go.

So to 2017, I say thank you. I say goodbye.

And now let this new chapter of hope begin...

Let's say hello to a most wondrous radgical year.

Let's say hello to our dreams. 

And now I say hello to you.

I wish you all the love in all the universes,

Sam xxx