The Beauty of Letting Go

Port Angeles, Washington, October 2023

September 22: The first day of Fall, the autumnal equinox. Represents balance with day and night equal. This period encourages self-reflection and gratitude. Fall – the season that demonstrates the beauty of letting go as the leaves change into glorious shades yellow, orange, red, rust, purple. Then gracefully fall onto the earth to be reborn again in a time of renewal in the Spring.

                        “There is a time for everything and a season for every activity

                        under the heavens…a time to weep and a time to laugh,

                        A time to mourn and a time to dance.”  Ecclesiastes 3:1,4

But we don’t always let go as gracefully as the Fall leaves, do we? I haven’t but I’m learning, and there’s a freedom and a peace in it! But how often do we hold on tight with all we have to people or situations? Or to those things that we are or have that we do not want to lose. A cancer diagnosis and any major life changing event forces us to let go of our plans, a dream, a hope. Life is a continual series of getting and letting go. What we discover is that when we open our hands and our hearts to what is and what could be versus what we think it should be, there is a greater blessing in store for us.

This cancer journey has forced me to let go of much, some things temporarily and some permanently – and I am thankful. Every day has its challenges and some are downright miserable. The chemotherapy has momentarily highjacked my life. It has taken my strength, my physical looks (I resemble an albino alien), most social gatherings, my ability some days to think clearly, and so much more. It stinks worse than a week old tuna sandwich in a hot car. But I get to decide how I handle it. I can see beauty in the ashes of my current situation. In Isaiah, God promises to give us beauty for ashes in painful seasons. Like the Phoenix bird, I am rising from the ashes that is currently my life. I have a higher and broader perspective.

I see more clearly the vanity and ego in focusing on the outward, the physical, the tangible. I see more vividly the beauty of the inward and splendor of life’s simple pleasures – the heart, the soul behind the eyes of another, the immense beauty and grandeur of nature that leaves me gobsmacked!

What are the ashes you may be currently rising from, or trying to? Can you see the beauty in them? Are you able to be grateful for the “bad” as well as the “good”? Can you embrace what comes your way instead of uselessly fighting against it? Are you willing to fully open your heart instead of guarding it and erecting walls that give you a false sense of safety and control? Can you say, “Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.” Philippians 4:11.

Take a moment of this Fall equinox day and just reflect on the beauty of letting go and the loveliness of change!