CHRISTMAS Day is literally over though it is hoped that its meaning and message remain in our hearts long enough. The celebration has shifted to the coming New Year which also means that the year 2018 is reaching its conclusion. A couple of days more and this year will now be a thing in the past. The year may have been good for us or perhaps too harsh for us yet whatever the case maybe, we must understand that the coming New Year signals us to move on.
The past will always say something about the present and the future but it does not mean that we have to live in it. 2018 gave us unforgettable experiences, both joy and sadness. For others, those were more of happiness yet for many they were more of sorrows. We experienced defining and unexpected turn of events in positive and negative ways. The death of a love one or the breaking up of a relationship for instance made us think for many days that there was no light at the end of all tunnels.
On the other hand, our promotion in our job or the finding of a special someone made us believe that love was always in the air. Whatever the experiences are, they will now be part of the past. Year 2018 will say a lot of what will happen to 2019 but it will never speak enough of the entire year. New and different things will happen. Shakespeare said that everything shall pass. The happiness, the sadness, the excitement, they all will pass. If these feelings happen in 2018, they too shall pass. So one must know how to move on.
Moving on touches all aspects of human life. It is not only applicable in relationships where we used to hear the words “move on.” One is encouraged to move on after suffering heartbreaking tragedies such as the loss of a love one, separation from someone or something dear to us, loss of one’s job or home, discovering of a serious disease, failing to save the family from being broken, failure to secure a promotion or discovering of a different course in life. On the other hand, moving on is also applicable for positive things that happens to us. We cannot always live like the day we won the lottery jackpot.
To move on is to move away from something or someone we hold or we are with. It is to free us from something that imprisons us. It is therefore imperative that a person knows how to let go. One cannot move on when she/he is holding on to something like a thought or an emotion. The excitement of a newly wedded couple can alienate their relationship if they keep holding on to that belief that marriage is all about the honeymoon stage. They have to let go of the feeling of excitement and face that they will encounter marital challenges. For a person to move on from a break up, she/he must let go of the thought that they are still together or that they are destined for each other because it is no longer the case.
Moving on then is acceptance. It is accepting 2018 is a good year or not a so good year. It is accepting that it is a difficult year because you have lost someone very dear. It is accepting that your world came crushing down and it was difficult for you to welcome some days because they just kept you remembering that lost. It is accepting that people like you encounter various challenges in life. Without acceptance, you will always ask why of all people, that kind of difficult problem happened to you.
Moving on is living in the present, learning from the past, and accepts the unpredictability of the future. Moving on is not forgetting what happened in 2018 rather it is accepting that what happened have happened and our choice, aside from making the memories alive, is learning from them to make us more ready to live in 2019. We cannot let ourselves be prisoner of these thoughts and emotions because they will only hinder us to live this coming year with optimism. Moving on gives us a perspective to see the coming year as a new and different year. It gives us a new hope and therefore makes our attitude more welcoming.