47 Comments
User's avatar
Brandi Lynn's avatar

This piece beautifully captures the quiet dignity in letting go by framing our changes as a deeper loyalty to our own nature rather than a betrayal of the past ✨

Be Budding's avatar

Thank you for your beautiful words, Brandi ❤️🙏

Diana's avatar

this made me feel strangely peaceful. “splitting without anger” is such a beautiful way to say it. 🤍

Be Budding's avatar

Yes, I'm all for it ❤️

Dean M's avatar

Letting go is an Art, requiring a lot of guts...

Be Budding's avatar

Somehow, I don't find it too hard 😊

Dean M's avatar

You're good. I'm bad at it. Need ages… if…

Be Budding's avatar

Be kind to yourself ❤️❤️

Dean M's avatar

Thank you… I am very (too?) sensitive… definitely a point

Be Budding's avatar

I am very, very sensitive too. But also in a way that if someone takes advantage of my softness, I can quickly distance myself. I feel and see through a lot.

Dean M's avatar

Oh I do relate and agree to that absolutely

Wildwood Writer's avatar

I love this ♥️

Be Budding's avatar

❤️❤️

Dorie Snow/雪多丽's avatar

This is lovely, Be! I felt like you were speaking right to my heart. I recently let go of someone I had been friends with for over a decade. We truly drifted other ways. I’ll miss her, and I sincerely wish her only good things and blessings. Painful but necessary sometimes. Beautifully written!

Be Budding's avatar

Always letting go in love ❤️

Odel Asseille's avatar

I loveed this. Just amazing

Be Budding's avatar

I’m glad! ❤️

Mark Johnson's avatar

You are one of my favorite writers here, and this is a great example why. Kudos.

Be Budding's avatar

Aww, thank you so much, Mark, I really love your writings too!

Laura Lynch's avatar

So good. Sad in some ways! Made me reflect on the many I have outgrown through the years. Not lost forever, because I carry parts of them with me -- in the moment I knew them, they gave me something. Not always good things, but things that made me who I am, taught how to stand, how to love, how to grow. I really loved this.

Be Budding's avatar

Thank you so much, Laura. I’m truly happy that this piece resonates with you.

Life is about live and let live, isn’t it?

Laura Lynch's avatar

It absolutely is! ☺️

Ink and Light by Nat Hale's avatar

This felt very close to something I have been learning slowly myself, that outgrowing is not always dramatic or cruel. Sometimes it is quiet. Almost natural in the way seasons change or branches reach without asking permission.

I especially loved “not wrong, not unfinished, / only early in the language of becoming”. There is so much gentleness in that way of seeing people and relationships. Not as failures because they changed shape, but as part of growth itself.

And the tree imagery stayed with me because it feels true to life. We do not always grow beside each other forever. Sometimes we bend toward different light. Sometimes life asks different things of us. That does not erase what was real or meaningful.

There is something deeply peaceful in this piece. A kind of permission to let go without bitterness, and to allow becoming without guilt.

Be Budding's avatar

Thank you so much. I’m so happy that it resonated with you in that way.

I’ve never understood why people become angry when a relationship or friendship comes to an end. I believe that when someone no longer wants to be part of your life, the most loving thing you can do is let them go.

Sarah Levis's avatar

Beautiful, Be. :)

Be Budding's avatar

Thank you so much, Sarah!

Dani's avatar

Thank you so much for this. I’m honored that my line became a doorway into something of yours. That feels like one of the most beautiful parts of writing here, the way one person’s words can open a room in someone else.

This is lovely, and I’m really grateful you tagged me.

Be Budding's avatar

Thank you Dani, and you are right, Substack is a wonderful place, isn't it?!

Jay's avatar

Life is like a flowing river. The water never stops. It walks right on by touching the shore as it passes but passes still. I love this one. It evokes such imagery for me. Thank you BE

Be Budding's avatar

I'm really pleased that it speaks to you, Jay!

Christopher Van Name's avatar

A beautifully, poetic way of explaining how our lives changed and why we move on.

Be Budding's avatar

Yes, thank you, and allowing 🙏

Mark Decker's avatar

I feel this one to my core as I’m still becoming…. 🙏 ❤️

Be Budding's avatar

Thank you so much, Mark, that's so profound 🙏 Perhaps your tree is growing a new branch 🌳🌿

Mark Decker's avatar

Indeed B, pruned and transplanted but still growing anew! 🌱 ☀️

Be Budding's avatar

Amistat - anew (Official Video) - YouTube https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dCaX8s4enHU

Mark Decker's avatar

Thank you B, 🫠

Be Budding's avatar

🙏🙏 I love growing anew

Simone Senisin's avatar

Such grace 🙏🏼💖

Be Budding's avatar

🙏🏻

Fragments and the Dark's avatar

„accept what no longer fits the shape your life is taking“ I liked that very much! 🙂👍🏻

Be Budding's avatar

I'm glad you do, grow in your own way 🌿🌿

Fragments and the Dark's avatar

Thanks a lot! 😁🙏🏻