Both/And

“We favor the comfort of conviction over the discomfort of doubt and we let our beliefs get brittle long before our bones. We laugh at people who still use Windows 95 yet we still cling to opinions that we formed in 1995.” Adam Grant from the book Think Again
The term both/and comes to mind
It’s so easy when we’re young to be certain
We are so set, that life is easy 
And clear
We are given a set of beliefs and for most people, they are held onto, for life
It’s all either/or
I’m curious about what we evolve into
Beliefs are just thoughts that we think over and over
So, what do you do when you start to think differently?
When something comes to an end
When someone goes away
When you figure out, you have changed
Can you hold onto the past and be present?
When we relocated to Chicago three years ago
I packed up what would fit into the new apartment 
Most of our belongings were donated 
We gave about 90% away
Everyone thought we’d lost our minds
Everyone thought it would be so hard
It wasn’t 
It was freeing and incredibly easy
It lightened up our life and made space for what’s new
Purging what’s no longer needed 
What doesn’t fit
Books that can’t teach you anything, anymore 
You can enjoy the memories and let the item go
Both/And
As we all start to come out of our pandemic comas
And the vitriol of the last election cycle fades
What would it look like if you just let some stuff go?
Embraced a new chapter 
Got curious about something you’ve never tried before 
Talk about what excites you, not what bothers you
Free yourself to be open to life
Lennon Flowers said “Heartbreak and hope are not mutually exclusive. We can be angry and sad and filled with longing for something we cannot have, and simultaneously we can be grateful for what we’ve got -aware, for reasons we’d never choose, of what really matters and what doesn’t.”
We can be both 
Who we’ve always been 
And who we are becoming