knicked off from ate kaye's blog

...excerpt from CLOSING CYCLES by
Paolo Coelho

One always has to know when a stage
comes to an end. If we insist on
staying longer than the necessary
time, we lose the happiness and the
meaning of the other stages we have to
go through. Closing cycles, shutting
doors, ending chapters - whatever name
we give it, what matters is to leave
in the past the moments of life that
have finished.

None of us can be in the present and
the past at the same time, not even
when we try to understand the things
that happen to us. What has passed
will not return: we cannot forever be
children, late adolescents, sons that
feel guilt or rancor towards our
parents, lovers who day and night
relive an affair with someone who has
gone away and has not the least
intention of coming back. Things pass,
and the best we can do is to let them
really go away.

Let things go. Release them. Detach
yourself from them. Nobody plays this
life with marked
cards, so sometimes we win and
sometimes we lose. Do not expect
anything in return, do not expect your
efforts to be appreciated, your genius
to be discovered, your love to be
understood. Stop turning on your
emotional television to watch the same
program over and over again, the one
that shows how much you suffered from
a certain loss: that is only poisoning
you, nothing else.

Remember that there was a time when
you could live without that thing or
that person - nothing is
irreplaceable, a habit is not a need.
This may sound so obvious, it may even
be difficult, but it is very
important.

Closing cycles. Not because of pride,
incapacity or arrogance, but simply
because that no longer fits your life.
Shut the door, change the record,
clean the house, shake off the dust.
Stop being who you were, and change
into who you are