Have you ever said to yourself, "It's been a while and I missed my chance?" In case you're wondering, I have my hands up. For me, this statement applies to my writing. I felt like I hadn't written in a while, so the ability must be gone. Looking back, that was an opportunity to start again, but I felt so defeated by "time" that I allowed my ink to dry up; hindsight is 20/20. Each time I felt like it had been a "while," I allowed more time to pass, to the point that it felt like I hadn't written in forever.
One day, while sitting in my car, I told God, "I miss writing and want to write again." As I spoke, I took the first step and put pen to paper. I realized that "a while" was at first for months, then years, and the years added up because I let a "while" cause me to feel defeated. As I wrote the first word on the paper, I smiled. I had to fight through the negative self-talk that criticized the words on the paper and push through to the next word, paragraph, and page. Before I knew it, I had written a three-page poem, and a "while" was no longer relevant.
To anyone who has ever felt that too much time has passed or that you missed your opportunity, just start again. Whether it's in romantic relationships where you've felt like it had been a while where trust wasn't had, or love wasn't felt, if this is what you want, make the decision to start again; start moving in love and choose to trust because a while doesn't mean gone forever. If it's going back to school, don't let the fact that it's been a while stop you from choosing this day to start again. If it's been a while since you've tried something new, decide today to try that something new.
A while doesn't mean that the opportunity is gone forever. Many times, it takes silencing that voice that created the space. It takes putting fear in its proper place and out of your heart and mind. It takes you to decide to take that first step at any cost because you've paid the waiting price for too long.
There are some other areas in my life that I had to decide to start again. What are those areas for you, and will you use this moment to begin again?