Authentically Letting Someone Go...

When I think about those that have left deep imprints in my life most of the time they are people that I am still in contact with on a regular basis.  FB has definitely allowed the world to become a little bit smaller in that way.  I can see what friends and family are doing on the other side of the globe, I can share pictures of our memories, and I can stay close to them even though I am thousands of miles away.  

There are those though that have left imprints on my life, in my heart that I have had to let go.  There are those that I am still in the process of letting go.  I think letting go is the hardest when it is the other person that you know is going to hurt more from the loss.  It is the hardest when you see the potential for that person, but you know that you can no longer play a part in unleashing that potential.  It is the hardest when you realize that your friendship with them is actually more toxic for the two of you then helpful.  

How do you let someone go, when you have been through so much together?  When you have helped each other, hurt each other, and dreamed together?  I don't know the right answer actually.  I don't know if there is one set formula to letting someone go, but I do know that it has to happen.  I know that in a lot of cases letting go means moving on.  Letting go means healing from the hurt, pain, and toxicity that controlled who you were and are as a person.   

Sometimes the best thing we can do for someone else is to let them go.  Even though it doesn't seem like the right thing to do necessarily but if you are always looking backwards, and reopening past wounds, then there will never be an opportunity to look forward.  Letting go stinks sometimes, it causes more pain for a little while, but in the end I think that part of being authentic to yourself is realizing that God is the only one that can truly touch hearts, and change them.  He is the only one that can help a human realize their need for Him.  

Today I am letting go of someone that has been in my life for awhile, not because I don't care...but because if I don't then I can't be who I am supposed to be.  I can't move forward and truly live authentically.