When You Open the Curtains, the Light Comes In
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Today’s title was something I said, simple but profound in conversation this week. I began to think about the way how we see things, people, and situations changes everyday. Have you thought about we start our days? There is a quiet moment every morning when the room is dim and still, and the world feels paused, just for a moment. Then you pull the curtains back, and everything changes; not because the room is different, but because you can finally see again. I have been thinking about that moment lately and how much it mirrors the emotional work we do in therapy, coaching, and all of our relationships. Our healing and the ways we learn to return to ourselves is very sacred work. Light does not erase the past; it simply reveals what has been waiting to be acknowledged.
As I reflect on where I was a year ago compared to now, I have realized how often we compare what used to be with what currently is. That comparison can either free us or trap us. Family relationships shift, friendships evolve, romantic connections bloom or break, and we move through beginnings and endings often without stopping to let the light in long enough to understand what those seasons were trying to teach us. Undoing toxic patterns means learning to see those transitions for what they are. Our experiences, good, bad, or indifferent, cannot be reduced to only success or failures; they are markers of our growth.
With time, we learn that acceptance does not always mean closeness and closeness does not always mean safety. Some relationships soften with age; others reveal limits we did not want to see. Hope can whisper that maybe things can still be different, while acceptance steadies us with the truth that some people may never meet us where we hoped they would. Both truths can live in the same room.
Friendships have their own seasons, too. People drift, reconnect, disappear, or surprise us. Some endings are subtle; others may catch you by surprise. And yet each transition offers clarity about who we are becoming. Hope tells us that new connections will find us and acceptance helps us release the ones that no longer fit. Romance teaches this in its own way as well. The curtain opens slowly, then suddenly the truth is there: what we desired and needed, what we settled for, what we imagined, and what actually was presented. It is humbling how much clarity can bring light to things when we stop idealizing and being married to outcomes.
Beginnings and endings are not separate chapters but threads of the same story. I often say “We need to think about the end from the beginning.” We pause between them, sometimes stuck in the comparison of who we were and who we are becoming. But perspective can help us be more grounded: you can honor the past without trying to recreate it, and you can embrace endings without losing faith in what is ahead.
Hope and acceptance work best together. Hope keeps us dreaming; acceptance keeps us grounded. Together, they help us see things as they truly are: relationships that nourish us, dynamics that drain us, patterns we are ready to release, and parts of ourselves that deserve more care than we have offered.
If you are feeling stuck, try asking yourself what is quietly improving even if it does not feel dramatic. Ask which relationships are shifting and what those shifts are teaching you? Ask yourself: what are you holding onto out of fear, not alignment? Ask yourself where can a little more light help you see things more clearly.
Sometimes the smallest opening changes everything.
You don’t need a major life overhaul.
You don’t need all the answers.
You don’t need to rush your healing.
Try starting with these statements:
“Let me see what’s true today.”
“Let me welcome whatever light comes in.”
“Let me choose hope and acceptance at the same time.”
Remember, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
Let’s connect. Email me: moniqueevanstherapy@gmail.com
Accepting individual, couples, and family clients (self-pay and select insurance via headway.co- Monique Evans, LCSW)
For social work clinicians, I also offer clinical consultation meetings (Not to be confused with clinical supervision for licensure hours) at any level of practice.
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