~:L O V E * L E T S * G O:~
I came across this beautiful quote yesterday in our Emotive Alphabet calligraphy class at PC yesterday. Christy brought in a bunch of great quotes all about traveling and being free, letting go, etc. I wrote this one down for myself. It reminds me to let go of those who need more than what I have to offer. Especially those who have died - who have moved on, whether that choice was theirs or not.
Tommy was one of those folks who needed to go. Was unhappy for too much of his life. In respecting his choice, in the end, I chose honor him by letting him go. It is very freeing. Sure, I still get mad and angry and relive the process of letting go all over again. But coming back to this point of surrender is beautiful, welcoming and real.
When someone makes a choice that puzzles me, whose left a trail of destruction for all to remember and I'm thinking, "What an asshole - what's their fucking problem!????" - I will try think of this quote and to remember that it's not up to me to save ANYONE, except for myself.
Thanks for the epiphany. {{sigh}}
5 comments:
i gave you props on my blog for this one. and i finally found where in "walden" i had underlined this exact quote. there's more. before and after.
"a living dog is better than a dead lion. shall a man go and hang himself because he belongs to the race of pygmies, and be the biggest pygmy that he can? let every one mind his own business, and endeavor to be what he was made.
why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed and in such desperate enterprises? if a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away. it is not important that he should mature as soon as an apple tree or an oak. shall he turn his spring into summer? if the condition of things which we were made for is not yet, what were any reality which we can substitute? we will not be shipwrecked on a vain reality. shall we with pains erect a heaven of blue glass over ourselves, though when it is done we shall be sure to gaze still at the true ethereal heaven far above, as if the former were not?
Oh Sarah, you are one of the best listeners I know. I wish I had more peace about things - letting people be who they are, without it being a reflection (good or bad) on myself.
Mysterious differences are what makes us all beautiful in our own way. It is in the judgement of others that I fail most miserably.
I am having a REALLY intense day. Can you tell??!!
*correction* it should read, "... and not be the biggest pygmy that he can?"
i forgot the very important word, "not".
it sounds like an intense day. thoreau will do that to you. i think we're all pretty bad at accepting people being/thinking/doing different than ourselves. i have to get on to myself all the time for this. yet, you will hear nobody scream louder than me when i'm being attacked for doing things my own way.
i think it's one of the biggest challenges; to make yourself feel another person and see the world as they do. it is the best feeling and at the same time it's exhausting. but i do it as much as i can. because it erases the categories of good and bad and right and wrong.
i'm a slow learner when it comes to seeing that the world isn't black and white and it is a major effort for me to see things, as they were meant to be, in shades of gray.
I'm glad I stopped by here today. I needed to be reminded of that. Thoreau will now replace Emerson on my wallpaper.
We must be living in parallel universes. I have been mulling over this topic for the past 2 weeks.
I think, ultimately, what all of this speaks to is the idea of total self-acceptance. That is the biggest challenge. To fully accept all parts of who we are...and, ultimately, remove the judgements we make of ourselves and see beauty in all of it. Life is beautiful...even in its moments of great pain, loss and sadness, there is beauty because it is real. When we learn to love ourselves and remove judgements and expectations from our own lives, we naturally extend this to others. It is so much easier to allow people to live their most authentic life when we have allowed ourselves to do this. But, mother fucker, this is hard work...and the concept is so antithetical to what most of us are taught.
And we fail often. We fail to do it in our own lives and we fail to do it for others. And we have to learn to forgive...both self and others.
Hope you intense day lends itself to a peaceful weekend. :)
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