Letting Go – Lance’s own take

I posted this yesterday in a comment in response to Erika Kind’s excellent and inspiring blog post, My Symbol of Letting Go. A few friends of mine saw it and encouraged me to publish it as a stand alone blog post. I hope that at least one person who reads this will gain something from it.

The Book

This is a point that I make to people about the importance of letting go. It was originally explained to me in a totally different way, but I like to explain it in my own terms.

The Ra Expedition by Thor Heyerdahl (1971)

Pick up a book.

You must have one close at hand, so you could do this right now.

How heavy is the book?

Not too heavy, really.

Stand up and hold it out in front of you at arm’s length.

One hand or two? It doesn’t matter.

This is easy, isn’t it?

Hold it there for a whole minute.

Still easy?

Hold it there for five minutes.

It’s feeling a bit heavier now isn’t it?

You may even be getting some aches in your hands, wrists and arms.

Hold it for fifteen minutes.

You may have already given up, but you are getting the idea.

The book feels a lot heavier.

The pain is spreading to your shoulders and even to your back.

If you go ahead and hold it for half a day, the book will weigh more than anything you ever carried before in your whole life, and you will be paralyzed with the pain.

Your mind will have only one item in it…. that damned book!

So, you must all be with me by now, bearing in mind the subject of this post: Letting Go.

The earlier that you let go, the less weight you have to carry and the less pain you have to bear. 

Let go and move on!

If you are recently bereaved, you may find the following two poems that I posted on my Titbits page helpful to you at this time.

Death is not the end
Gone