My Favourite Glass (broken)

By Erin Newton

Recently, I had to throw away my favourite glass because it cut me. I am a person who finds contentment with different fancy glasses and when I get older, I would love to have a glass collection of my own.

That said, I briefly kept this specific glass, while it was broken, before deciding I had to part ways with it. I thought maybe I could reuse it in some way, or I could just drink from the other side of the rim as only one part was chipped.

But after it cut me, I had no other choice.

Similarly, in our lives, there may be things, people, or environments that have this effect on us. We like them but they hurt us and it is hard to let go.

These can be habits—like we may love to doomscroll sometimes, even though by the end of it, it may leave us feeling worse. We can have some acquaintances or even friends we may like but they keep doing things that make us uncomfortable or things that hurt us bit by bit, silently, and we just keep the connection. Some relationships can be more one-sided than mutual and we find ourselves spending energy and time on someone who leaves us empty in the end. We could also be in environments that may be toxic with too much noise in some sense or simply not good for us mentally. We may say: ‘I’ll stay because at least I am comfortable’.

This is the moment to decide to let go. Let go of the harmful habits or things or environment. Let go of the behaviours that bring us down. If it’s hard, start fighting against the pull towards them.

People are a bit more complicated but if they hurt us, it’s not healthy. I’m not saying to cut them off; I’m just saying learn to step back and set boundaries. Confront them if that works for you but don’t keep trying to push it under the rug because you want things to be okay or because you think that it isn’t anything big or the joy is worth the hurt.

It’s hard to let go of these things or people that hurt us but this is your moment to do just that. Our lives are constantly changing with new seasons and new people. Some characters don’t stay in Season 4 and then unexpectedly, some come back in Season 6.

The difference between this life and a TV show is that we can’t fast-forward or search for spoilers. We have to sit through each day, seeing the events unfold, immersed in each moment. Sometimes, we may not want to let go of someone or something painful because we don’t think we can get anything equivalent to the good that it or the person can bring. Again, when we let go of things (or people), we make room in life for others.

Like computer memory, our energy and time each day are also finite— twenty-four hours, only so much energy. What is this time worth spending doing? Who is this time to be spent with?

At the end of the day, we would only be happy with what’s meant for us anyway.

It’s time to let go of some things to make room for what’s meant to be.

Let go of the unhealthy emotions, habits, things, environments and set those boundaries with those toxic (or even just semi-toxic) people.