Letting Go

"We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the life that is waiting for us" 

--Joseph Campell

"'We hold fast by letting go.'  Letting go of our attempts to control things, our attempts to maintain control over every aspect of our life.  We've all heard the saying about if we love something, we should let it go, and then we'll know whether it 'belongs' to us when we see whether it comes back to us.  So much of our discontent and our dissatisfaction comes from our unwillingness to let go of trying to control things and trying to cause just the results that we think should occur." --Tom Walsh

Sometimes you have a plan.  Sometimes that plan means the world to you.  Sometimes you think that you cannot possibly live unless that plan comes to fruition.  Sometimes that plan is wrong.  Sometimes you need to let go of that plan in order to see another plan that is in front of you.  Sometimes we forget that there are greater things at work in our lives other than ourselves.

There are people who have come and gone in my life who I have wanted to hang on to.  People who I thought would be by my side forever.  When I was younger, I lived in denial.  I could not believe that they were actually gone and that they were not coming back.  So I continued to communicate with them as if they were here.  As I have gotten older, I have made similar mistakes, hanging onto friendships and relationships that were destined to fall apart.  

And now, now I try my hardest to let go.  I try my hardest to find peace in knowing that they are happy, even if that happiness does not come from me.  I try my hardest to believe that something or someone will come along that will not want to let me go.  

I need to stop trying to control my destiny and need to accept that my life is not my own.  "Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it." Luke 17:33.  I am losing myself in the work that I am called to do, and thus I am finding myself more deeply than I ever have before.  So let go.  Be patient.  Have faith.  There is a plan for you and this plan is the right plan.  Lose yourself in the work and you will find peace.

Until next time,

-J