Our prime time years are often a time of gain: free time for hobbies & travel, autonomy, grandchildren, etc. It can, and often is, also a time when some of us also have begun to lose or are beginning to contemplate the loss of physical health & stamina, financial wiggle-room, loved ones, etc.

I googled the word lose last week. The initial links — page after page — were to sites providing definitions of the word and its correct grammatical usage (including differentiating between lose and loose). Following those pages were links to sports stories (March Madness, anyone?).

Then I came upon countless links to articles focused on losing excess weight. Over on Pinterest, a quick search of lose took me directly to that topic, with endless pages of articles, memes, etc., on why and how to lose excess weight.

It’s easy to identify things in our life that we need to let go of because they are overtly bad to some degree. The negative effects of those things — debt, clutter, tobacco use, a sedentary lifestyle, etc — is so obvious that we can’t deny we’d be better off without them.

But there are other things — those whose negative effect is not so apparent for one reason or another — that we would also do well to lose.

And, surprisingly, there are things that are actually “good” that we ought to consider letting go. Why? In some cases, the good is taking up so much room in our lives that there’s no room for something that would actually be better. Also, while something may be good, it may not necessarily be our good.

As winter oh so slowly draws to a close here in my part of the midwest, I’m turning my attention to spring and summer. I’ve begun planning a small garden and am looking forward to attending my community’s farmers’ markets. I’ve also started penciling on my calendar a variety of day trips and planning a few larger excursions as well as sprucing up my wardrobe a bit.

As I add things — plants and clothes, trips and (hopefully) a class B camper, I’m also contemplating what I need to lose . . . the not-so-good that I need to let go . . the good I need to remove to make room for the better.

I hope you’ll join me this week in considering what you might want — or need — to let go of. After all, what do you have to lose?

I hope you’ll join me on Facebook (Patti Miinch) this week. Please “like” and “follow” my page and join in the conversation!