I love the holidays. Everything about this time of year vibrates intensely, starting as early as the door closing upon having just given out the last piece of candy to miniature scare actors in my neighborhood. Covid placed a damper on most plans last year; looking forward to a more traditional season shall be most welcome. For me, there is something else. A second reason to feel an extra bit of air lifting me beneath my soles. A cool change is in the autumn mist. To say I am lighter  now would be an understatement.

For a tick of time, I have wrestled with a burden all alone. Not because I am some self-anointed international man of mystery but rather due to my struggle to eliminate it. It has represented tremendous angst, which has taken a fairly heavy toll on my day-to-day emotional state. My sleep has been negatively impacted, and finding full enjoyment out of everyday observations has been a challenge. Upon waking each morning, an inherent shadow has existed lurking within the reality of my ongoing self-imposed burden.

Incredibly, in less than 24 hours, my entire world shifted once the realization came; I had become my unique problem. Disallowing myself to shift from beneath this cumbersome toll caused a figurative storm cloud to faintly float above me constantly despite the warm sunshine greeting me upon the new dawn. Day in and day out, part of my brain has collected rent from an unwelcome suitor. I suddenly realized less than a week ago; it had been time for an eviction. It took a text message from a business colleague to pry my blinded eyes again.

Each of us carries an unnecessary something which tends to shield our life-glow slightly. Our planned hurdles can be difficult in and of themselves. We are allowing ongoing unhealthy complications to confine our enjoyment of our gift here… simply madness. Regretfully, it took me much too long to realize I had been accepting these types of stressors to dislodge my crooked smile.

In less than ten seconds, if quizzed, you could write your unwelcome house guest on a piece of paper with very little consideration to it. There is something in your head creating undue pressure impacting your right to greater happiness right now. It is in the form of circumstance, an item, idea, relationship, or endeavor which has been squatting within your being for some time. As I had done, you, too, are accepting of it despite its more significant characteristic of being the barrier for immediate enjoyment. Walking around each day with confounded worry upon your mind doesn’t have to be like this. Your mission should also become to kick it the hell out.

By finally permitting myself to lessen what had been weighing me down, I no longer needed to trudge. And with it, the pinning weight which had been slowing me, then commanded renewed positive energies to find a welcome spot, heading into this most special of seasons. There is now  a confident, warm light dancing internally again. One I had allowed to become quite dim for an extended time. Don’t get me wrong; I enjoy most things. I help people for a living, but I, too, never stop growing.

“One day things will get better. One day I will get to it. One day, I’m going to take care of that. One day, it will be so nice not to have to worry about this.” Phrases we all say, but do we mean them. If not, why do we continue to utter them? There is an entirely unnecessary load hidden deep within each of our skulls. Everyone is carrying one, and many would love nothing more than to alleviate themselves from the stress of lugging this figurative two-ton heavy thing around each day. It feels as though we accept laboring like this as a part of our life deal  here on earth.  At what point do we say, “enough is enough” and strive to wrangle inner peace again. Do it soon for the sake of timing.

With the holidays fast approaching, find your  enjoyment in them again. Make it a point to stop lifting unwanted baggage up over your head each day. You, too, shall be blessed with entirely new energy. Change your story and change your outlook. From there, look in the mirror and repeat after me, “Welcome back; what took you so long to get here.”

No vacancies.

Cheers…A