"Life is lived forward, but understood backward. It is not until we are down the road and we stand on the mountain looking back through the valley that we can appreciate the terrain God has allowed us to scale.” Jill Savage

Sunday, March 16, 2008

HOPE

Of all the forces that make for a better world, none is so powerful as hope.
With hope, one can think, one can work, one can dream.
If you have hope you have everything.

My challenge today is about hope vs. letting go. A theme that's been a constant thread in my life.
"Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness".
You can see hope too that both hope and letting go is a choice.

So take a hope or a dream that you have and think about it for a minute. Do you ever wonder at times if dreams really can come true? They(?) say if you believe and think positive that dreams will come true. It's like the song on Shrek, you have to keep telling yourself,
"I Believe, I Believe, I Believe". I'm a firm believer in what I call Self Whispering. I think you can talk yourself through a great many things, no I know you can. It's a survival technique. Now this is a gift #1 I'm giving to you. I have a lot of what I call survival techniques and this is a great one.

When I think of some idea or dream of some idea, God usually answers me by an email or forward I receive that particular day, a call from a friend at the exact time I need it, or I can read something in the paper or a magazine the same day that I've been thinking about something, some action will happen out of the blue - some 'thing' will come to me - about what I've been thinking or dreaming about. I've always kind of taken that as my inner guide telling me I'm on the right path. Like an answer to prayer. It's a way of checking whether or not you are on the right path. You do have to look for the positives - another survival technique. Gift #2.

My question is how to know when to continue to hold hope or when it's time to let go? I think you have to let go and give the dream it's own wings. If it comes back to you - it was real and if does not come back to you need to let go. How long is long enough? Maybe a dream includes changing someone else. You can't change anyone - you know that down deep in your soul.

Something like that saying "If you love something set it free, if it comes back to you it was meant to be. I guess if it doesn't come back to you, then it wasn't meant to be".

That's when letting go becomes the issue at hand. Sometimes you can spend all your time hoping for something - when and how do you decide it time to let go and move forward with your life? God does say no sometimes to our wants. When do you fight or when do you fly?

My favorite poem in the entire world and boy have I had to use it a lot in my life time is called Letting Go Takes Love. It can be used for anything and anyone and in any situation!
Consider this one of my greatest gifts to you - #3.

LETTING GO TAKES LOVE

To let go does not mean to stop caring,
it means I can't do it for someone else.
To let go is not to cut myself off,
it's the realization I can't control another.
To let go is not to enable,
but allow learning from natural consequences.
To let go is to admit powerlessness,
which means the outcome is not in my hands.
To let go is not to try to change or blame another,
it's to make the most of myself.
To let go is not to care for, but to care about.
To let go is not to fix, but to be supportive.
To let go is not to judge,
but to allow another to be a human being.
To let go is not to be in the middle arranging all the outcomes,
but to allow others to affect their destinies.
To let go is not to be protective,
it's to permit another to face reality.
To let go is not to deny,
but to accept.
To let go is not to nag, scold or argue,
but instead to search out my own shortcomings and correct them.
To let go is not to adjust everything to my desires,
but to take each day as it comes and cherish myself in it.
To let go is not to criticize or regulate anybody,
but to try to become what I dream I can be.
To let go is not to regret the past,
but to grow and live for the future.
To let go is to fear less and love more.
The time to love is short.
Author Unknown

It's weird to think that by letting some 'thing' go, that it might be considered love, but it is. Maybe you have to love yourself enough to let go because holding on hurts too much. Maybe your hurting someone in the process and because you care, you let go so as not to hurt them.

You never know what life has in store for you. You get this huge boulder thrown in your life you were not expecting. It's a great, big, beautiful, boulder. Do you go through it, around it, under it, over it - or do you try to incorporate it into your life?
Ah, the mysteries of life...

Well .... my grandson has had the flu the entire week! He's still sick today. He was home sick everyday last week - really sick. He's wanted me to sit right next to him almost all day long, every day, and watch kid shows. My brain is fried! Hopefully he will go back to school tomorrow so I can take my husband to the doctor for a test! You can see I've had a lot of time to think and as usual - get myself conflicted on life's issues. That's one reason people keep busy. Survival technique #4.

I think to be honest, that's Chatty Crones's signature or her 'modus operandi'. A Pieces, which I don't really believe, yet I do. Two fish swimming in opposite directions. I fit it exactly. I'm always thinking. (Problem.) I'm always thinking both ways to the same situation. (Problem- some people might say I over analyze and I do).
What's not a problem is that no matter what - I'm still going to be okay. I know that these days. When we get stronger it doesn't mean we will have no pain or sorrows, it just means that we will make it through. And that's a good thing.

Well, I have help and reinforcements today and he's feeling a little better. The sun is shining. So today is a better day. I'm going out to my garden and get it ready for spring! Decorate for the Easter bunny and put more seeds out for the birds. Don't you just love to be awakened in the morning by chirping birds? Ah, life at it's fullest. Another survival technique - feeling the earth - survival technique #5.
Love,
A conflicted, no I mean confused (lol), Chatty Crone





2 comments:

Lianne said...

At the woman's circle I facilitate, last month's theme was "surrender". I believe that is what you are referring to. We all have to come to the place where we are surrendering everything to God or the Universe and then walking in faith that somehow it will be alright. We have committed to learning certain lessons, and we have to surrender to the process.

Blessings upon you.

Chatty Crone said...

Ah,surrender - what a great word for it. I like that. Chatty