What do you hold on to when you let go?

"Hold on to what is good,
Even if it is a handful of earth.
Hold on to what you believe,
Even if it's a tree that stands by itself.
Hold on to what you must do,
Even if it's a long way from here.
Hold on to your life,
Even if it's easier to let go.
Hold on to my hand,
Even if someday I'll be gone
away from you."

A Pueblo Indian Prayer

What do you hold on to when you let go?

When a child you raised moves on and creates a life of their own after years by your side. Day by day in your family home and sight. Comings and goings and they are no longer in front of you. Yet always with you.

When a loved one moves to another realm and you had questions. Have questions you wish you'd had a chance to ask. And you realize that living your truth may answer the best a question can be answered.

When a career you invested decades building and cultivating to master evolves. Success changes it's manifestation before your eyes. You watch it's definition fuel the career that overlaped, a new one unfolding in your life. You continue to put the pieces of a larger puzzle together to see a bigger picture.

When you feel pulled by something larger than your feet connecting you to the ground you walk upon directs your heart and mind. Opens your life to possiblities that were not part of your plan. And you knew that if you ignored this calling, it would destroy the part of you that fuels all you do.

When your way of thinking and seeing the world transforms and you are not sure who shares this view. You wonder if the ones you've shared your life with will understand this change in being. And discover many who do.

When the structure of your life expands and transitions from parameters that were previously property lines, walls, budgets, timelines, personal taste to the sky and ground and vast endless possibilities, around you and within you. And you discover new parameters. 

When you feel deeply at home and at the same time, you do not know yourself and sometimes feel lost in the midst of knowing you are where you need to be. There is no instruction manual, just the beating of your heart and trust in something bigger that you.

When you listen to that voice inside you over the voices around you. Wondering if the owners of those voices will acompany you along the way. Or any part of their voice, their words, whether in adversity that challenged you or in wholehearted support that encouraged you. To walk your path.

When you venture forward onto a path that others ask, "when did you start on this path" and you remember the magic of childhood, the concept of "caretakers of wonder" and choose a life  lived within you and has guided you all along, the part of you that is invested out there, in manifested beauty shaped in homes that surround and abound. 

When the path you walk upon unfolds before you and you know you are not alone because every living being is living an adventure that is personal and as unique as the feet  carrying every body, heart, mind and soul. Unity in diversity.

These questions live with me...

The daily letting go of storylines that hold me back. The ones I felt defined my life. Expired opinions, viewpoints and expectations. 

Every day, I do my best to remember and hold close the wisdom gained from a life lived, more and more, to the beat of my own drummer. The reminder that everything I feel, all that moves through me, comes and goes --- joy, sadness, happiness, despair, inspiration, anxiety, vigor, exhaustion, sucess, failure, on and on, and all the spaces in between are part of the richness of choosing to live life fully. Feelings felt by all, regardless of our storylines, backgounds, beliefs, and lifestyles. A choice to be open, to feel and experience. Choosing to love, be loved, live a life I love with those I love. In the end, there is nothing I can take with me.

Life offers a balance of letting go and holding on. Holding on to my truth, discovering my voice and growing in courage to open this bridge between heart and mind to connect with the souls around me and beyond me. Minute to minute. Day by day. The opportunity to let go, little by little, of that which holds me back from living fully. 

“Be patient toward all that is unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms or like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not seek the answers which cannot be given because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even knowing it, live your way into the answer.”

Rainer Maria Rilke