The year is coming to a close, leaving behind it’s anxiety as we approach a new one. As I spend the evening looking back on 2020, I keep envisioning a person carrying a large sack.

If you have seen a photo of a mountain expedition, you may have seen a porter, or a person carrying large amounts of supplies on their backs. This is my picture. Weight hunches them over and it’s hard for them to move forward under it all. What they are carrying has 2020 as an expiration date on it. They carry it because the belief is, it’s their burden to continue to carry. They believe it is of use at the destination ahead.

The past year has added one thing after another to the backs of many, weighing many people down. Crushing them. They falsely consider it their duty to carry all of it to the next destination. Some perhaps a badge of honor, other’s guilt or shame. 

I keep hearing the words rotate in my mind, the old has passed away, the new has come. Don’t bring burdens and weight of 2020 into your new year, let go of the heaviness on you from the past year. The future does not need what is of the past.  

At certain times, many creatures in this word shed or molt something that was once of use, but no longer is. Things that don’t serve them going forward, things that would just weight them down. 

A dog or cat will shed their fur or undercoat. A lizard with shed its skin. Birds will shed their feathers. Insects and crustaceans will shed their exoskeleton. Even humans shed about half their body-weight in skin during their lifetime. 

With the image of the person attempting to carry expired goods, came the image of an insect climbing out of its exoskeleton, or “shell” if you will. It was freeing itself from what was holding it back. Created new, its tiny feet touched the ground with a firm purpose for the future. Releasing anything holding it back or weighing it down. Keeping only what it needed for life ahead, it sprung forward with ease and joy.

Release everything from 2020 serving no purpose. Let go of the heaviness and burdens on you. Those without merit, or those you believe you deserve. 

Shed it, shed it all, don’t bring into a new year that which has no place in it. Be free as a new creation, let the old pass away, let the new come. You deserve that more than anything.