Letting Go...

(To start at the beginning of the series, check out "Fake It..." )

While I’m still firmly planted in Phase Two, the next chapter is already starting to take shape…The third phase appears to be called “Letting go”.

In order to let things go, you’ve got to take inventory of your life to determine what should stay and what should go…I had a truly stupid amount of unnecessary “baggage” so housekeeping would be working mandatory overtime. It was embarrassing to think I’d wasted time and energy carrying this junk as some of it happened so long ago I couldn’t remember all the details…but I was still holding on to it! It reminded me of a story…

“Two monks were walking along a river and they came up a woman who needed to cross but couldn’t because of the rushing water. One of the monks agreed to carry the woman across the river on his back. Upon reaching the other side, the woman thanked the monk and went on her way.

The two monks continued down the path in silence until the first monk commented, “Why did you carry that woman when you knew it violated your sacred vows?”

The second monk replied, “Because it was the right thing to do”

“It was wrong and you shouldn’t have” stated the first monk.

For the next few miles, the first monk kept talking about the woman.

The second monk stopped and said, “I left her at the banks of the river…why do you continue to carry her?”
(Wow! Can I botch a storyline or what? !?!? You get the point...)

Lessons I’ve learned:

If you can’t change something and it causes you pain, why carry it forward? Let it go…

If you see others struggling with challenges, you are obligated to help them…it’s the right thing to do

Letting go means forgiving others who have wronged you but, more importantly, it means forgiving yourself

Normally, I don’t write about life projects in progress (or anything this close to New Age psychobabble) but I needed to get it out of my system.

The "black cloud" followed me for too many years and I see it over several of my friends who are experiencing difficult life challenges. I’m no role model (my next series of entries will dispel any myths of that ever being true) but this experiment has been positive and I’d be selfish not to share if it can help others. Maybe the name of Phase Four is “Pay it Forward…”? I’ll let you know when I get there….