Let go and dance

This past year—and in fact, for a long time now, but the lessons have intensified this year—I have been learning to let go. To say it more honestly, I am struggling with learning to let go. It doesn’t come easily.

What am I trying to let go of?

Everything.

Why do I want to let go of everything?

Because I want to experience myself as one with everything.

In my first post this year, I included some lines from T.S. Eliot’s poem “East Coker.” The whole poem is about letting go, but one line in particular points the way: “To possess what you do not possess, you must go by the way of dispossession.”

Raimon Panikkar gave some insight into this paradox when he said, I am one with the source insofar as I, too, act as a source by making everything I have received flow again.”

Cynthia Bourgeault puts it like this:

Abundance surrounds and sustains us like the air we breathe;  it is only our habitual self-protectiveness that prevents us from perceiving it. Thus, the real problem with any constrictive motion (defending, hoarding, accumulating, clinging) is that it makes us spiritually blind, unable to see the dance of divine generosity that is always flowing toward us.

The more I let go, the more I am part of the dance.

Photo source: Anita Peppers, morguefile: https://www.morguefile.com/archive/#/?q=dancing%20feet&sort=pop&photo_lib=morgueFile

Photo source: Anita Peppers, morguefile

2 Responses to “Let go and dance”

  1. carin

    Yes to all of this! Cooincidentally, just yesterday, I picked up two books from the library that had caught my attention recently… ‘Mess’, by Barry Yourgrau (a memoir about getting rid of his ‘stuff’), and ‘The Hoarder in You’, by Dr. Robin Zasio, who studies the psychology of hoarding. I’m not a hoarder myself, not by any stretch. I LOVE getting rid of stuff. But I do recognize the tendency to hold on to certain things or behaviours… and the reasons *why* fascinate me. The *why* of what we limit ourselves to… worth reflection. Anyway, bon voyage to you on this brilliant journey! As for dancing, a friend recently sent me the word ‘balter’ (to dance artlessly but with extreme joy).
    Is there any other way? cheers,

    Reply
    • commatologist

      I had to laugh at myself this morning. Last night I pulled out half a shelf full of books I deemed myself ready to part with, and this morning I put three of them back on the shelf. Not quite ready to part with those. Books are something I’m prone to hoarding.

      Thank you for “balter”!

      Reply

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