October 21, 2008 Print Preview

Letting Go, What Gives, And Derivatives

By Beca Lewis

It was a beautiful fall day, a perfect day to work in the garden. My plan was to move two hosta plants which resided in an area that received direct afternoon sun, and move them to the morning sun area of the garden, which is their preferred location.

I prepared the new holes for both hostas and then went to dig them up. The first hosta released its roots easily and quickly and within a few minutes I had it resting happily in its new home. The second hosta, planted in the same area would not let go.

I struggled with trying to dig it out while talking to it saying, "Please let go, I am moving you to a happier place. You are hurting yourself by holding on. Please just let go!" Every minute that went by was harder and harder on both me and the plant, until finally I was able to pull it free.

Although now it is planted by the first hosta I know one of them will have an easier time of recovering from the move.

Isn't this how we are sometimes? We won't let go. We won't let go of how it was, or how we think it will be, or what we own, or what we want, We hold on with every fiber of our being while the infinite is moving us lovingly to a "happier place".

Something has to give because that is how we expand and evolve. We either give up how we want it to be, think how it should be, remember how it was, and how it could have been, or we suffer the pain of letting go.

The sooner we let go the easier our life is during and after the move.

It reminds me of the phrase, "what gives?" Isn't it interesting that we commonly use this phrase as we greet someone meaning something like, "What's happening, how are things going?"

But, take a moment and think about what we are really asking when we say,"What gives?"

Taken literally it could mean at least two things. Asking "what gives" in the sense of what it is that gives to us or it could mean "what are we letting go of or what is giving way for something else."

We could ask ourselves, "What gives" and make a conscious choice to let go of our human personality ego. In letting go, we are answering the question of "what gives." What gives way is a limited sense of supply. By giving up how we want it to be we can hear the Infinite say, "I am what gives."

We have always been living in times when we have needed to let go and let God, but recent events have forced the issue for many of us. As many of you have consciously stood in and for Truth what is not true is coming to the surface to be dissolved in the light of that Truth.

Now we need to decide if we are going to hold on to how it was, or let it go and move into a new awareness. As the very successful hedge fund manager Andrew Lahde wrote in his good-bye letter, "Throw the Blackberry away and enjoy life."

We could be broader in this interpretation. We could throw away what the worldview says our life has to be and enjoy what is being given at this moment to us.

Our friend and client Gail expressed this eloquently in her glorious email to The Women's Council explaining what happened after she let go and allowed herself be moved into a new awareness, "…but still as I was speaking the words they didn't match the sense of peace, wonder, gratitude and deep understanding of the magnitude of what has opened for me!"

For many of us when a new direction opens up, instead of letting go we hold on. It's painful to hold on. As people, places, and things evolve and change in our lives, instead of holding on we must let go.

If we hold on to our material based version of how love, abundance, supply, and peace have to be given to us they act just like the derivatives found in the stock market. They are always doomed to fail as they are not the real thing. They are pre-packaged perceptions the worldview wants us to buy with our time, money, and hearts.

They are not what gives. What gives is the pure sense of happiness that is not derived from anything but from Itself. It gives completely, fully and practically at all times. As we let go we discover that giving up the derivatives of happiness does not have to be painful, but is full of adventure and joy and a security found nowhere else.