Ever feel like you are walking around carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders? Or simply lacking all focus, freedom, passion, joy, energy or life?
Yes, I think if we are honest, we can say we have all felt this way at one time or another in our lives. And lets face it, it is not pleasant.
Not only is it unpleasant to us, however, but to those around us. Because weather we realize it or not, our livers affect thousands of others on a daily basis. That lady a the grocery store who gave you a smile and found nothing in return, or the man who actually let you into his lane while you were driving only to meet with a glare in return for his kindness. The hug of a loved one, being received half heartedly because you simply are not all there. All these little things can make a world of difference for those around you, even the people you don’t know can be affected by your distance and indifference.
But, being human, we don’t always think about how our actions affect those around us first. Rather, we think, no we obsess on how every little detail of our day affects us, and no one else.
So we become angry and bitter. We start looking at the world and the people in it as our enemies. We judge harshly and we hold onto grudges as though they were precious diamonds. We develop insecurities and begin to see a distorted version of our selves staring back at us. And we begin to hate it all. We hate our selves, we hate the world and all living things in it and we become miserable.
It is sad we put our selves through this when all we really have to do is let go. But letting go is hard. Letting go means not being able to judge a random stranger, which also means, not being able to “save face” with our own darkness; it means the opposite, it means having to look our own darkness in the eyes and then saying, I accept and forgive you or even overcome everything you stand for, because my light shines brighter than your darkness.
Letting go means forgiving and forgetting all offenses, no matter how vile. Letting go means asking for forgiveness while expecting nothing in return (remembering that person may be identical to us, and may not be able to forgive our offenses)
Letting go means being open hearted, which also means we are vulnerable at all times.
Letting go means realizing we are all one and the same. Realizing that the pain one human being is enduring hundreds of thousands of miles away from me, is directly affecting my own life in ways we cannot even fathom.
Letting go means being truly alive, and that can be terrifying to many.
But wouldn’t you like to be able to wake up one morning and simply feel. Wouldn’t you like to know that you are free and that you are loved and that you can love to your maximum capacity with out bursting apart at the seams?
Wouldn’t you like to make a difference in the life of that one human being, hundreds of miles away from here? Wouldn’t you like to take his or her or their suffering away, knowing that their suffering is your suffering as well?
Wouldn’t you like to heal all wounds, harbor no resentment, and love unconditionally all the time so that you could greatly impact the lives of many?
I want this.
I want to shake it all off.
I want to be able to let go and be open to love, to life, to every single moment and every last breath I have while I am here.
I want to make a difference, however small (even it if means simply lending a smile to one who looks downtrodden, or giving a hug to those I love, and those I don’t)
I want to forgive and forget it all, because all this resentment I carry is not a pile of diamonds; it is a pile of misery, and trash. (to use kind words)
I want to be able to smile at myself and those around me when I feel like I am the ugliest human being alive.
I want to shake it all off!
And I am working on this every day of my life. Because it matters, because we all matter, and because life is exactly what we make it; and I do not intend to make it heavy and miserable, but free and open and meaningful.
So, on I go with my day, letting it all go, shaking it all off.
OM SHANTI, SHANTI, SHANTI
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