Thursday Thoughts: Forging and Letting Go of Long Relationships

Thursday Thoughts, Inspiration, Wisdom for Women Entrepreneurs, Female Business Owners, Small Businesses

Staring into the blazing amber coals of a fire in our “quarantine corner of the world,” where a forged piece of metal sizzled and wept in the heat, my husband of three decades etched a heart with our initials in the middle of a stone in the fire pit wall. A mango colored sky stretched out above us and songbirds, trying to mate in the cool spring air, fluttered around peering down on us with envy.

Forging life-lasting relationships of any kind takes both hard work and yet no work because it’s natural. What every human on earth is finding out during the Coronavirus Pandemic, with distances placed on loving relationships, is the strength, depth, and width of every connection they have as they calculate the risks and rewards of both quarantining and reopening themselves back up to warm embraces, face-to-face smiles, and delicate acts of kindness.

An optimistic-minded girl from the start of life, I’ve always chosen to love the depth of friendships. My heart has always been big enough to include more people in it, than not. This same essence and expression have made me the receiver of many long-lasting business relationships as well. Always one to include every type of woman business owner at my business table, no matter her age, race, financial status, sexual orientation, or religious beliefs, has opened both my heart and doors to an abundance of wonderful women. When one leaves my business orbit for some reason, my heart shrinks just a bit as I bid them adieu.

Yesterday I learned a valuable lesson about letting people go as they leave my life and business for different pursuits. As much as I wish to hold onto everyone who is dear to me, it’s not about what I want because it takes two people for relationships to work and continue on. Both parties must want the bond to strengthen and evolve. Sometimes without understanding why the same priorities and attitudes that connected individuals vanish like billowing smoke from a once roaring fire rising into the air for departure. It’s okay to let it go.

I hope today if you are faced with a changing, challenging relationship in your work or personal life, you stop to take a moment to thank the relationship, etch a moment in your heart to remember and let it go. We are stronger as humans and entrepreneurs when we can just move on from relationships that don’t serve us anymore and into existing ones that still do.