A friend once told me of a practice that sincerely touched me and has stayed with me ever since. When life is rough or when she’s feeling down, she pictures herself as a small child and thinks of that sweet little girl and all of the wonderful things in life that she wants for that little girl, a younger image of herself. And then she imagines scooping that little girl up in her arms and holding her close and tight to tell her how much she loves her. And this has made all the difference in how she feels about and treats herself as an adult.
This practice has not left me since she told me about this. Since our conversation, I’ve often wrapped my arms around myself and pictured the innocent little me with tight curly hair and a sweet smile. And I love that little girl. So much. I want everything that is good for her in life. Because isn’t everything good what every sweet little girl deserves?
Life doesn’t always agree with that. Because that’s just the way life works. We don’t get everything good. As I’ve thought about today’s prompt, React to the term: Letting Go, I’ve come to realize that in my life, letting go is so much more than what the term suggests. It’s true that there are things, places, people and moments in our life that we cling to, often when we shouldn’t and sometimes when we should, and at some point, if we want to carry on, we have no choice but to let go and free ourselves from the pain, and hurt, and in some circumstances even the joy. In my life, letting go has been about this,but it has also more importantly been about forgiveness, personal growth and trust.
That sweet little me with tight curly hair learned a lesson very early on in life about letting go. It wasn’t by choice, not my choice at least, and it took many many years of trying to understand before I came to a place of peaceful forgiveness. And I experienced this as a very young girl without much knowledge of what exactly my heart was going through and how it would dramatically change me. I experienced the freedom of accepting the loss that life had given me and I learned to allow my heart to truly forgive. Because most of the time, when we truly let go, we allow our minds and our hearts to accept the divine course of our lives, and though it’s not always the course we’ve designed for ourselves, we have to have faith in the divinity of our life’s journey and trust that the pain of letting go will always be countered with the sweet reprieve of joy. Forgiveness bears freedom which in turn makes room for joy. And letting go is just the beginning of that cycle. I know that to be so true.
In life, when the exhausting task of letting go presents itself, I hold that little girl with tight curls close, because her happiness is what matters most to me, and I assure her that there is power in “letting go”. There is power in loving yourself. And there is power in having faith in where you are going.
