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Dear Brave Souls
To let go
Some have a hard time
letting go of what is no longer,
what cannot be, what is not,
what has never been.
People say
'just let go,
just let go,
just let go'
scattering the platitude like confetti
immediately swept away by any wind.
What is it exactly, this letting go?
No longer allowing the eye
to be caught by the hook...
No longer fastening the lock on the door,
just letting the door swing as it will...
No longer visiting the graves
where there is no love
and no blessing in both directions...
No longer reviewing and reviewing the past,
even the last moment,
as though there will be a test.
There will not be a test, dear soul.
What is it exactly,
this letting go?
Not reading the same chapter over and over
and over and over, futilely attempting
to make the indelible facts be rewritten…
Making new memories of quality
to bathe old scars and new life...
Moving into a larger world
in which the past
is but a dot on the landscape
rather than the only continent in sight.
We all find our ways…
letting go is shaking loose,
letting go is turning
in your great coat, into a new wind
forward into new sky and open road
leaving what cannot be,
and taking all treasure
from the wreck.
Each in her own way.
Each in his own way.
This comes with love. Hang in there. No one deserves to be nailing the hem of their cloak to the crossroad that once was, but that is not now.
Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes
Painting by Helene Knoop
♥♥♥
ReplyDelete... meer dan woorden, lieve vriendin! ♥
ReplyDeleteThe act of letting go is so very beautifully expressed by Clarissa Pinkola Estes. I love this poem! Letting go is a deeply intimate act that occurs only in one's own heart, not in another's - an event so momentous yet quietly accomplished, unaccompanied by outer fanfare or recognition by others. As Clarissa Pinkola Estes has pointed out in the poem, it isn't as simple as "just let go." It is not just letting go of what we are holding on to that needs to be let go... as if it is an object we hold in our hand. it goes deeper. Letting go involves a peeling off, a stripping away of who we thought we were - and in t his peeling away we discover within us something so intensely real and vibrant, something that goes beyond any definition that can be used to nail down who we are. In this way what has been hitherto only a mystery is revealed to us. The painting by Helene Knoop is incredibly moving. Looking at the woman with her eyes closed I feel she is deeply connecting with the essence of being, the inner stillness within. In this recognition we also connect with our own inner stillness. Thank you Emma for such an absolutely beautiful and moving post!
ReplyDeleteJoseph, I am grateful, always, for your perception and the way in which you supplement what has been said.
ReplyDelete