When I was 13 years old, American Football became the passion of my group of friends at school in Dublin.  We would play our version of touch American Football up on a tarmac area behind school.

I remember catching the football and running for the end zone.  A member of the other team caught my heel.  I felt myself begin to fall.

In that instant, something wise took over.

I did not resist the fall.  I knew it was coming.  I knew the hardness of a tarmac surface.  I knew I was running at my most full speed.

Somehow, I did not reach a hand out to break my fall.  I did not resist.

In the last instant I found that I had tucked my head under and did a forward roll.  It was a moment where I felt like I separated from myself and something else was in control.  Slow motion.

I found myself completely unharmed.

Everybody on the field came over and asked “How did you do that?  I thought you were going to hospital.  How on earth did you survive that fall?”

If you are falling, dive.

Often most damage is done while resisting the inevitable.

A few years back, I had a business that fell apart.  More damage was done to my health, to the shareholder’s finances, to my life in the process of resisting the fall.

Next time I fall, I hope I accept and commit to the dive.

Fighting the universe is doomed to fail.  Going with the universe, accepting where it is taking me is a little wiser.

I find it so hard to close chapters.  To end a phase and move on.  To declare that a relationship has finished, a business is done, a project is complete is so difficult that I accumulate.

The phoenix rises from the ashes, not from the fire.  New life grows on the death of life.  When a hunter eats his prey, that death allows life.

As I read a book, chapter 1 finishes to allow for chapter 2 to begin.

If you are falling, dive.

Close the chapter.  Let the fire burn, the phoenix arises from the ashes.

How do you close chapters in your life?  How do you move on and let go of the past?  What works for you?  What doesn’t work for you?