The past is a wonderful thing. It is from the past we learn many lessons needed for the present and the future. If we hold to tightly to that past we can at times however not step forward into the future to which we are called. I speak not of the history of a people, but rather the places where I have been.
In particular I speak of my GPNW home. While the coasts, mountains, valleys, forests of the Pacific Northwest will always have a sacred space within my heart and always be home to me, it is not where I am, nor where I am to be. Yet I have hung onto that space never fully letting go of aspects I needed to. After undergrad I returned and had many experiences there which I would never trade, but at some level knew I needed to be elsewhere, where I still do not know. Even upon leaving the NW once again a year ago, I left hooks into that place, in part those hooks were left as part of a big safety-net of comfort and part of my complex system of hiding while standing in the open and running scared while standing still. Thursday in discussion with a friend and mentor of mine in reflection of the meetings earlier this week and other encounters and experiences of the past few years I came to the point, in part with his encouragement, to release a few of those hooks so that they may attach onto the future to which I am called rather than the past from which I have been called from. Friday through three e-mail messages I stepped out in faith and let those hooks go so that they may sail free in the present and grasp onto the future when the time is right.
Peace
— Lyle II