{"id":187,"date":"2026-03-07T08:19:39","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T16:19:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/danbenson.me\/?p=187"},"modified":"2026-03-07T08:19:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T16:19:40","slug":"the-season-of-letting-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/danbenson.me\/zh\/the-season-of-letting-go\/","title":{"rendered":"\u653e\u624b\u7684\u5b63\u7bc0"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u653e\u624b\u7684\u5b63\u7bc0<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Greetings from the season of letting go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That seems to be the theme of this year, at least. Letting go of one life in order to make room for another, one with more potential. One with more room for growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And boy does it take time. I guess I should\u2019ve known that dismantling 47 years of living\u2026 sifting through it, throwing the inessential away, and unpacking it, newly configured in new surroundings would require more than a quick call to the movers and a few boxes. This is going to be quite the undertaking, which is why I\u2019ve set aside the entire year of 2026 for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what brought me here? After years of hard work and emotional investment, why have I a reached a point where it must be tossed away? Why the need to pivot now<\/em>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve hit the ceiling of the living situation that I\u2019m in. The career I\u2019ve built no longer sings to my heart. My surroundings are stifling, and lead nowhere. There is no avenue to grow in the ways my soul is begging me to grow. My passions are being unaddressed, and the country is in shambles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not just a dead end. It\u2019s a series of them, stretching out into infinity. Even if I brute force myself through another brick wall, like Kool-Aid Man, there\u2019s just another one right behind it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Life is signaling to me that I need a major pivot. It\u2019s making it obvious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To some, the career-man lifestyle works. Do your job, climb the ladder, collect that pension, send the kids off to school, retire, die, and leave the rest to the next generation. There are quite a lot of people out there who are perfectly accepting, and who may find their peace in that. I\u2019m not judging them, I\u2019m just saying that it doesn\u2019t do it for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps I\u2019m just a dumb romantic fool, swayed by my own stupid emotions to abandon security and the logic of the middle-class, driven into the wildfire of unnecessary risk to follow the wild music of my own heart. But I can\u2019t help it. I\u2019ve hit a point where I\u2019m just asking myself on a daily basis \u201cis this really it?\u201d and my conscience is screaming back at me \u201cno, you idiot, there\u2019s a whole world out there, full of new experiences that you\u2019re keeping yourself tucked away from.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And for what? The lure of another paycheck to spend on gas and Amazon? A pension that promises nothing more that a slow and comfortable coast to death?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bro, I want to live<\/em>. I\u2019ve seen other parts of the world, and I want to get all up into that. Existing in a split-percentile sliver of existence for your entire life, and never venturing outside of that may work for many folks, but it is simply all wrong to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So maybe now you can begin to understand why this long, rolling path has spit me out into nowhere. Perhaps now you can see why I feel backed into a corner. Even if it doesn\u2019t resonate with you, you can briefly step outside of your doorway to see why it may be a major problem to others. You may sleep soundly in the coddling arms of your 401K, but it just doesn\u2019t bring me that same kind of peace. Where you see freedom, I see a cage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dramatic? Maybe. But back up a bit and really size up the reality of our collective human condition. We get this one life. And your purpose may be another man\u2019s pain. You don\u2019t get a do-over. You don\u2019t have a reset button for the days you\u2019ve lived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, wow, let me bring it back in. 2026 needs to be the season of letting go\u2026 for me. 47 years old, dude. It would be so easy to just roll the years into each other\u2026 48, 49, 50(!) I\u2019ll definitely do it next year. No I mean it.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Procrastination is Purgatory, and I can\u2019t live another year in this no man\u2019s land. I need trajectory.<\/em> I need to spend at least a few of the good years left, basking (or struggling) in the life my soul is begging me to experience. With the days that I have left, I need to push the boundaries of my experience. I need that fullness, or else what I\u2019ve been gifted with will be wasted, and I can\u2019t go to my grave with that kind of failure.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Season of Letting Go Greetings from the season of letting go. That seems to be the theme of this year, at least. Letting go of one life in order to make room for another, one with more potential. One with more room for growth. And boy does it take time. 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