This week, I’m frankly feeling tired and needing to let go of some of the things I’m doing. So I’m offering a poem and a, well, I guess the second offering is a poem, too.
What might you let go of to make more space for yourself?
Let Go of It by Cindy Day Roberts
When the wind came up that day
I was holding the jib, I was holding it tight
like Harriet said to and it was something
to be flying over the bright water,
the wind with us, the shore becoming small,
then green, then a dark line.
It was my first time and I was glad
that it was easy, my job steady,
the boat light as a toy, the water
slipping by with a slipping sound.
And then the wind changed, turning
like a face in anger, darkly,
and hurled itself at the side of us.
Harriet said, “Let go of it,” but I couldn’t,
I kept pulling the jib tighter while the mainsail
she let go of clapped over my head
and the rope tying everything to everything
dug deep into my hands. Disaster is
to me now this perfect symbol,
that boat keeling, Harriet leaning backward
over starboard, arching her neck as far as it will go
into the wind, the volume of the wind,
the Atlantic spilling in, again
her cry, “Let go of it!” and myself
when I couldn’t, when it was more than
terror, I already believed I was stronger,
bigger than the wind and could not see
how not holding on would save us,
how letting go is holding on.
Let Go by Ernest Holmes
She let go. Without a thought or a word, she let go. She let go of fear. She let go of the judgments. She let go of the confluence of opinions swarming around her head. She let go of the committee of indecision within her. She let go of all the ‘right’ reasons. Wholly and completely without hesitation or worry, she just let go.
She didn’t ask anyone for advice. She didn’t read a book on how to let go. She didn’t search the scriptures. She just let go. She let go of all the memories that held her back. She let go of the anxiety that kept her from moving forward. She let go of the planning and all the calculations about how to do it just right.
She didn’t promise to let go. She didn’t journal about it. She didn’t write the projected date in her Day-Timer. She made no public announcement and put no ad in the paper. She didn’t check the weather report or read her daily horoscope. She just let go.
She didn’t analyze whether she should let go. She didn’t call her friends to discuss the matter. She didn’t utter one word. She just let go.
No one was around when it happened. There was no applause or congratulations. No one thanked her or praised her. No one noticed a thing. Like a leaf falling from a tree, she just let go. There was no effort. There was no struggle. It wasn’t good. It wasn’t bad. It was what it was, and it is just that.
In the space of letting go, she let it all be.
A small smile came over her face.
A light breeze blew through her.
And the sun and the moon shone forevermore.