Loss and Letting Go

 

Nothing teaches you to let go like losing something that’s important to you; losing a loved one or breaking something of value.

We’ve all lost loved ones, it’s the biggest loss we’ll experience. Everyone grieves differently. We all go through stages of loss in our own way, at our own pace. Letting go seldom follows a prescribed plan.

Scaling things waaaaay back:  we all lose petty things, too. These kinds of things have no value to anyone but us. Although, much easier to let go of, these things can still cause angst and frustrations. Taking a deep breath and shaking it off can turn into taking two, three or four deep breaths and shaking our fists because we don’t want to let to, but we have to.

I recently broke my phone and had to replace it. It’s sad, really, how attached we can get to our phones. I suppose it’s easier to replace one if you’re part of the savvy crowd that backs things up to a cloud.

Sure, I can transfer my contacts and some of my text and old voice messages, my pictures – at least most of them….

But, scores for games I’ve been playing for years? Gone. Predictive texts? Gone. Little things I looked forward to, or grew too dependent upon, I now have no choice but to start over and build up scores and vocabularies again.

I resent it, because it feels like a waste of time; I’ve already done it before. Feels like I’m back to square one. I guess it reminds me that I’m always starting something over.

But, doesn’t life happen in cycles? Having the opportunity to start over again should be a good thing.

Blew my diet yesterday? I was given today to try again to get it right. Fail a quiz at school? Now you know you have to study before the big test that really counts. Forgot to save that essay you were writing? You can do better when you write it again.

Sometimes we get it right when we do things again, or when we do them repeatedly. Take rejoicing – the more we rejoice, the more joy we experience, and as we know, “the joy of the Lord is our strength…” (Nehemiah 8:10)

Take those deep breaths, shake your head or your fists and let it break loose….. Let it go. Honestly, your other choices aren’t productive. Perhaps that’s why this was penned so long ago.

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.”

-       Reinhold Niebuhr

Maybe we need to anticipate more from what’s to come, to let go of what we had.