Sunday 6 May 2012

Knowing when to let go

How often do we resuscitate a dying plant, knowing that with just a bit more of our energy, it will thrive again?  Sadly, the path is already set and we may be powerless against it.  Plants die. It is just hard to let go of something you've become attached to.  We sew a piece of ourselves to the items and people and goals around us.  Spend some time thinking of other aspects of your life where letting go might be a more gentle option than fighting.  Your work, a relationship that is waning, a pet who is ill or aging, clothes that do not fit, your home.  Sometimes, although we don't want to, we need to surrender and say good-bye before more pain is inflicted.  In the letting go, we prepare a new pot for another plant to grow.  Which, when the right time again, presents itself.

8 comments:

  1. This is so much easier said then done! And what makes it harder is that often we let go of plants that we think dead - and they come back alive (honest!)... or that dress that we think will never ever come back into fashion, yet it does... but I do understand that sometime, inevitably there comes a time to let go... I dread to think what I’ll do when it’s my turn to do so…

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    1. So true!!
      I let go of a plant yesterday. It had to be done, there was nothing more I could do. I felt like a bit of a failure. But having that suffering not-so-green plant in my face every day was more painful. As for clothes - YES - I love retro clothes. But my trick is, I pack everything up (winter clothes, clothes that don't fit)and store it away so I am not reminded of what "could be" hahaha

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  2. I've shared this fragment to a larger poem over at my place. I find it appropriate for today's topic:

    I don't search out of emptiness and need but out of increasing fullness and desire.

    Emptiness seeks any face to feel the void, it is full of shadows easy to replace.
    Fullness brings a friend, unique and irreplaceable.
    ***************

    Yep, I agree with you, big time. Some habits, things and relationships lose their proportion. They served needs at one time, but life goes on. I'm not even the man I was last week, or yesterday.

    I'm deeply grateful I no longer accept the unacceptable. I'm happier, joyous and free!

    Keep up your excellent posts. I enjoy the challenge they offer. I appreciate the way you think: it contributes to my love for wonder and celebrating life---now!

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    1. Not the man you were yesterday....I love it!! We are always evolving and shedding old layers of skin.

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  3. I like the metaphors that you used in this piece. It is so very hard to know when to let go. I think, in many ways, we have trouble letting go because we fear what comes next...the unknown. Letting go, however, is a neccesary step in growing as a person.

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    1. Yikes! The unknown. Why I am so scared of this place, I do not know. Let's venture into it together like a dark forest, knowing that behind each tree there stands a good friend, cherring us on through the darkness.

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    2. Vanessa,

      Now, that is a concept! I've never heard anyone putting it that way.

      I think one of the issues we're talking about is trust. I find the slogan, "Let Go and Let God" helpful, in times of apprehension. For me, I don't need figure everything out.

      Btw, my negative emotions are not healed by using my cognitive mind, my cerebral cortex. This part of the brain is not connected to our emotions at all, at least biologically. It's more an issue of connecting with my limbic system, the more primitive side of who I am, my reptilian mind.

      I find healing when I'm in touch with, and listen to, my "felt sense". Learning how to discharge the negative energy within me has done wonders for my emotional ease and sense of well-being.

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  4. Letting go of the old to embrace the new is never an easy thing. It's something that I struggle with all the time.

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