The new year and new decade are just a few weeks old. How are we going to move our lives forward in a positive way? Sometimes we cannot envision our lives making an impact outside of our small circle. We are held back by something. The following story comes to mind when someone says they cannot do something. There was person traveling in the far east and saw a group of adult elephants standing in a yard only tied at the back leg with a small rope. No fence or chains, just a small rope tied to one of their back legs. This traveler asked the elephants’ caretaker why the elephants were only tied with a small rope. Wasn’t he afraid that they would break free and escape? The caretaker told the traveler that the elephants would stay put with only a small rope because that is how we trained them. When the elephants were small that small rope was all that was needed to keep them secured. They fought against the rope when they were little and eventually knew they could not break free and accepted it. That is why today we only need a small rope; they don’t know that they are bigger and stronger than that small piece of rope that holds them back. We all at times act like these elephants, being held back because of something in our past. We accept that the thing that is holding us back, cannot be broken. We are stronger and wiser than when we were younger and quite capable of moving in a new positive direction. As this new decade and year are still fresh, it is now that we have the strength to move ahead without the constraints that may have held us back in the past. We all have family, neighbors or community that needs to be moved forward. We are the people that can do those things that are needed. It can be a wave or smile when someone is looking down. It is knitting a warm hat or scarf to show love and keep the cold at bay. It might be reading to a group of kids at the library or speaking up for a need in your community that may have been pushed aside in the past. All we need to do is give it a try and don’t settle for the things that held us back in the past.