Today's Thought -April

[bluidkiti]

April 20

Letting go over and over: That's progress.

The first time we heard someone at a meeting say "Let go," we were confused. We had no idea what it meant or how to do it; even now, we forget on occasion. The people in our lives are special to us. And certainly for most of them, we want the very best. We've spent years trying to coach them. We've worried over their plights and relished their successes. We wonder how that can be wrong.

What we learn here is that prayers for loved ones are never wrong; however, trying to control, through any means, the thinking or the actions of anyone but ourselves is wrong. Letting go means letting others, those we love and those we barely know, do what they must. Every day we'll have hundreds of opportunities to practice letting go. We'll get calls we don't want to handle, we'll meet people we don't want to know, we'll face situations we fear to address. Letting go of the people and the outcomes will become easier in time. The greater our progress, the deeper our happiness.

Most things that happen today will be out of my control. If I let go of them right away, I'll experience many peaceful hours.

Today's reading is from the book A Life of My Own: Meditations on Hope and Acceptance*