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Do you feel less than you'd like to? Less happy, less confident,less "everything" than others? Sometimes your head seems justabove the water even though the rope you're holding is tight inyour hands. Perhaps you're holding on when you should be letting go.

Letting go can be one of the most difficult things we ever haveto do. It can also be one of the most liberating. Opening yourhand to let the butterfly fly away - that jewel-like creature wewish we could hold forever - means its cycle of life cancontinue, uninterrupted. The reward? Jewels returned to ustenfold, year after year, as we walk through a garden.

Some of my darkest times involve holding on to things. Pastmistakes which I refused to let fade from the "Open" file in mymemory. The job I chose to leave behind in which I could haveachieved so much more. The child who stayed in my body for just a few months before dying. People who have hurt me and people I've hurt. So many things. I have discovered, however, that letting go of just one thing at a time can bring peace and healing.

Now, letting go doesn't mean forgetting. We can't forget thewrong decisions we've made in our lives, the loss of a loved one,ending of relationships as well as the myriad of emotionsattached to each - and we shouldn't. What we can do, however,is let them go. Release them from the forefront of our mind where we constantly call on them and, instead, set them free to nestle into a soft, sleepy recess in our heart. Always there to bereflected upon when needed, their essences entwined with ourbeing and gently helping to create who we are.

We are all products of our past - good or bad - but we shouldnever be victims of it. Regret, repent, grieve, learn from andthen...let go.

Remember the rope, held tight in your hands? Instead of being the only thing keeping your head above water, it may be the thingkeeping ONLY your head above water. Is it holding you up ordragging you down? Let go of it and float on your back for awhile. Close your eyes and drift with the gentle tide as it carries you onto the beach, safe and well.

Let go.

© Carol Dorman