During a recent get together with a friend, we ended up discussing a mutual acquaintance who, many years and many relationships after her divorce, still pines after her ex-husband.
“At some point,” my friend, who has recently faced a horrific loss of her own, stated, “You just have to make a decision.”
And she’s right.
All of us will, at some point in our lives, face some type of loss. We grieve, we begin to weave the loss into our story, we again take on the motions of life and we experience the buffering action of time.
Yet ultimately, it all comes down to a decision.
That one moment where you make the choice to take that first step towards moving on.
It doesn’t mean that you’ll never feel the pain again.
It doesn’t mean that you’re now on a straight and well-defined path.
And it doesn’t mean that you will forget.
Instead, it’s a decision to let go – of the hold to the past, of the irrational hopes, of the impossible wishes.
And a decision to instead choose life.