Delete Old Versions Of Yourself
I wanted a lighter, simpler look for my website, so I installed the updated version of the theme that I use.
While doing so, I noticed all the past versions of that theme and other themes that I hadn’t used for years, just waiting for me to reactivate them and use them again.
Why would I? Why did I keep them?
It’s like clothes in my closet. Although I am diligent, for the most part, at removing clothes I don’t wear, I kept a sweatshirt in my closet for years that I had only worn once or twice. It was because I had a memory of why I bought it.
Interesting that the memory was how good someone else had looked in it—decades before.
Yes, decades.
I let that sweatshirt go this year, and I deleted all the past and unused versions of website themes.
All of this brought me to the awareness of how many past versions of myself I keep around in my head, thinking perhaps I might return to that version someday.
Some of them are versions I liked, some I didn’t. Perhaps it is wishful thinking that I can return to a younger version of myself—if I store that version long enough.
Why would I? Some versions are ones where I made mistakes. Do I keep that version around to remind me that I have done stupid things?
Why resurrect past mistakes? Why keep versions of youth that cannot be reactivated? Even if we could, should we?
Continuing the analogy of website themes, the new and updated themes have eliminated errors found in past versions. We would think it was crazy of them to keep them.
Why do we? Why not release mistakes and be the new version of ourselves that we are today? Think how much space for living we would have!
Do we expect babies to revert to old versions of themselves as they grow? No, instead we celebrate their fast and continuing evolution to newer versions of themselves.
At what point do we start collecting past versions, allowing them to take up room, instead of activating updated versions of ourselves and deleting the old ones? Holding on not only weighs us down, we don’t experience the freedom of each new version.
When I changed the theme on my website, the core information was still there; all that changed is the way it is presented into the world.
It’s the same for us; the core is still—and always—present. Someday, our versions will not be visible in this state of mind called life-on-earth. However, we will still Be!
Del and I watched a detailed video of the caterpillar to butterfly transformation. Actually, they move from eggs, to little worms, to caterpillars, to cocoons, to butterfly—each version completely different from the past.
When the butterfly arrives, it seems impossible to equate it to the versions of itself that came before, but the essence of its being has remained the same.
Imagine the baby holding on to the version of itself at 3 months, or the butterfly to the worm.
Well, they wouldn’t anyway would they, because for both of them, the transformation is joyous.
Here is one last analogy using website themes.
In order for websites to be more than just the basic theme, apps are used. Each app allows the designer to add details, or usability, to the website.
In the updated versions, many of the apps are now incorporated into the theme itself, making it much easier to choose what to use.
I deleted many apps this past month, because now they are part of the essence of the theme.
This is the same for us. We add “apps” to our lives. We learn to do things like dance, or knit, garden, and learn new languages. We add apps for additional patience, gratitude, appreciation of beauty, and love of our families, friends, and the world community.
In time, these life apps become part of our essence. And just as mistakes are eliminated and apps are incorporated in updated versions of themes, so it is in updated versions of ourselves.
If they are not, perhaps it is because we haven’t updated and continue to hold on to old versions. It’s time to let go.
This letting go, and accepting who we are today leaves us free to find new apps to add and eliminate ones that no longer fit.
All this is freedom.
So, although I often look in the mirror and wonder where this version came from and wonder why it has to look so different from the one just a few years before, this older version is still me.
And to be fully and completely me in this version, I must be willing to delete the versions of themes, pictures, images, and styles of the past and embrace the fuller, simpler, and hopefully wiser versions as they emerge.
Deleting the old version of ourselves, we celebrate that Life is never-ending, but always unfolding into infinite views.
We are grateful that the true essence of our being remains the same, always residing in the infinite beauty of Life.