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41. Letting Go

© Judi S. Kaminishi

I was six years old when my father finally broke the bad news to me, I was getting too big to still be picked up and carried. Never mind that my feet practically reached his kneecaps because I was growing too tall, I didn’t take this little father-to-daughter talk in the best of spirits. Now, at 57 years of age, how odd that I still remember that moment in time and the impact it had on me.

I knew I was growing too big to still be carried, but the love and security I felt in my father’s arms absolutely erased any traces of embarrassment or twinges of guilt I might have experienced. It was my first gentle nudge out of the nest, the first of many that helped me to mature and finally seek my own way out into the world.

Fast forward to my first weekend home after living away in a college dormitory. I can’t tell you how gratifying it was to return home and immediately take an inventory to make sure absolutely nothing had been moved or changed in my absence. I was especially pleased that even my younger siblings had not disturbed anything in my room, given they were always prone to invading my privacy while I was there.

Yes, change of any kind was/is never easy... even if one is the main perpetrator and having all the fun so to speak. It has dawned on me that there is one more constant in life besides "Death and Taxes," it is change. Change is ever constant no matter who, where, when, or why. One can reside in the same place for one’s entire lifetime and still experience constant change in the world around.

Each one of us is eventually faced with the task of either being the one to create change or to accept those changes caused by others. It really doesn’t matter which side one is on at any given time, the process is the same for each... "letting go."

Stop and think about the many times or stages one is challenged to accept change... to let go and make room for progress. In the big picture, change always represents progress, though often times it is not always obvious at first. We outgrow relationships, homes, precepts, circumstances, jobs, etc., etc. The usual discontent or unhappiness preordains the necessity for change. The longer one is unwilling to take action, the more problems arise.

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