Cherry blossoms? Really?
Sunday, December 27, 2009 at 9:06 AM While tidying up my studio this morning, I ran across this little parable/fairy tale written during a recent group supervision session. While I realize it is not quite cherry blossom time, I thought it appropriate as we begin the new year and consider what undiscovered adventures await us and where we might find freedom in letting go.
Once upon a time there was a beautiful pink cherry blossom. She was stunning in her splendor – light, extravagant, playful. She wanted to swim in the air, but nevertheless clung to the branches – hoping she could live and bloom and grow for a good long time.
Alas, the blossom spent vast amounts of energy worrying about what would come next. Would she fall? Would she soar? Would she die? All the blossoms around her were letting go and gently floating through the air. They seemed oblivious to what might lay beneath them.
“How ridiculous,” she thought. “Don’t they know you have to fight for what you want?”
“Really?” chimed in the branch upon which she clung. “All I do is sit here, come rain or shine, and beautiful, amazing things happen to me.”
“Like what?” asked the blossom.
“Like green leaves and blooms and purple sprouts and colors changing and covering me in pink light until I am so full I don’t know what to do. And just when I think I can’t hold another thing, the load begins to lighten – slowly, but surely – the weight dissolves and I grow and morph and change into something new.”
“But if I fall from this branch, I will die and turn into mush.”
“Yes, you will change forms, but you will become food and molecules. You will transform into something new and life giving.”
“But will I be as beautiful as before?”
“Who defines beauty? Beauty is in your heart, not your color or weight or size or smell. Give it a try. Let go.”
And so the blossom let go and she was filled with the greatest exhilaration of her existence. She was free in those moments as she floated to the earth. Free as a bird. She was swimming in the air and nothing else mattered in the world.
So... will you consider the possibilities and undiscovered adventures awaiting you in the coming year? Is there something you need to let go? I know I'll be pondering this over the coming days.
plum blossoms © lucy, 2007
Letting Go, Tales
Reader Comments (9)
Yes. Yes there is. More than one something, I fear. I find it hard to 'let go' because I am mistrustful, insistent, and still too egocentric to just accept that things lie far beyond my control, that I must learn to "let it be."
Me too, tinkerbell. Me too. At least at the moment, me too.
It is said that to let yourself go is to let yourself live.
To live, I think it's enough to be open to the possibilities and the adventures. Not to plan for them, make intentions for them, just be open to them.
tinkerbell and sue - thanks for weighing in with your honest and wistful control :-)
maureen - those are lessons i continue to practice (as in try to do more often & consistently). i have found that too much planning often leads to disappointment. being open to surprise is a fabulous way to live!
I let go of my dyed hair the end of 2009! I am allowing myself to be beautiful in another way... letting go of what i've told myself i must be and allowing space for something else... sporting a crown of white glory in the process.
thanks for the lovely post.
This is beautiful. I'm rather enamoured of Magpie Girl's post today in which she quotes another post about writing a "Dear Fear" letter: http://the-penny-has-dropped.blogspot.com/2009/12/dear-fear.html
It isn't so much fear for me, but letting go of a reluctance to fully engage in life.
hmmbrd - and what a glorious crown you sport!!!!
tess - i totally get that "reluctance"... in my journaling this morning (and later walk), i became very fully aware that i really don't like to let go of things... it's more fun to coddle them, so i have an excuse for grumpy moods and anything else i think i might need to justify. geez... more work to do in 2010. imagine that!?!?!?!?
Lucy - your fairy tales of late have been just wonderful! I love this one and "the possibilities and undiscovered adventures" are being anticipated with joy and excitement. I know we'll be sharing some of those joys together! (We'll probably be sharing all of those joys together and sometimes we'll actually be with one another when they happen:)
xoxoxo
thanks, SS. your own tale of mary and gabrielle was pretty special itself. it got a "referral" from lucy's post today :-)
and "the sharing" for the coming year... it's already begun! xoxoxo