Sunday Newscape Magazine

I’m not willing to go out on a limb and say that this is a human trait, but it certainly seems to be an American one - a seemingly insatiable desire for more. More of anything and everything. And it’s not just the accumulation of “stuff” that’s downing us, it’s our unwillingness (or inability…I’m not sure which) to let go of anything we’ve ever acquired.

I’m not really talking of garages so full that a moped wouldn’t fit. Nor, closets bursting with five dress sizes and fashions that predate Methuselah. Although I’m convinced that this drive to collect keeps the home building industry in business. What I’m most disturbed by isn’t the result of our penchant for stockpiling; it’s the habit itself. What drives us to let nothing out of our lives?

It’s easy to see this in the faceless halls of commerce. In the frantic effort to out-do the competition, businesses do more and more. It’s a cliché now: “do more with less.” It’s no longer good enough to give 100% or achieve your #1 goal. 110% is now seen as bare minimum. And what business is so archaic that it has only one #1 priority? Panicked over not being everything to every customer, businesses just keep adding more and more work…more and more priorities. But, show me one that actually STOPS doing something that they really shouldn’t be doing anymore! Or dismantles a part of their business that drains more resources than it will ever produce?

But, that’s business. Well, maybe…but, this dread of losing anything creeps into our personal lives too. And it’s killing our chances for truly moving ahead toward our highest and best good. We stay so stuck in the way things are that we never do reach for the way they could be.

“Every act of creation is first of all an act of destruction.” Pablo Picasso. Destruction? Oh, my God! You mean letting something die, letting it fall apart, letting it leave? Yes, and more…purposefully ending it! Think of the building industry again. To build a bigger or better building on a location that already has a structure – it first has to tear down the old. And then it can erect the new.

Creation requires we disturb what’s already in place – whether an object or a thought. To make a car, natural materials must be melted and combined into new forms and new compositions. The original materials cannot be used until they are transformed – until their old state is destroyed.

To build a house, trees must be transformed into lumber or clay fused into brick. The grain of wheat must be destroyed to create flour for bread. Silicon must be destroyed to fashion glass. The proof of Picasso’s axiom is all around us. Few would argue its truth. But, when it comes to applying that principle to our personal lives, we stick our proverbial heads in the sand.

For instance, you want a more slender physique - yet you won’t abandon old eating habits. For your new body to live your old habits must die. You want to experience more happiness in your relationship - but, you won’t forgive old hurts. Happiness requires the death of blame and anger. You want excitement, but won’t take risks. Playing it safe gets you mediocrity.

Something must first die away before something more desired can take its place. Holding on simply gets you what you already have. Loosen the grip. Let life move forward. It will anyway, you know. Do you want to be trampled in the process or riding the wave?

What are you holding on to out of fear or uncertainty of what’s next? To cross the river you must leave the bank you’re standing on now. It’s not unnatural, or even hard, to let things go. It’s the natural order of things - the natural flow of life. What’s hard is hanging on. It eats up all our creative energies trying to maintain that which should pass away. No wonder we fear letting it go…it doesn’t look like it will be replaced. We keep our eyes so firmly on what we’re loosing that we never glance up to see what’s heading our way.

Think flow. All of life is in a state of death and rebirth - on a cellular level and a universe level. Give it a try in this next week. If something or some thought or belief has served its purpose and needs to fade away, let it. It WILL be replaced - with something more suitable for your present and your future. I promise!

(c) Karen Wright all rights reserved - http://wrightminded.com