The Power of Letting Go
Today was a beautiful day. The sun was really bright and the weather is super nice after a long winter in Bay Area. As I was walking along the beach with my spiritual teacher at Ocean Beach waterfront in San Francisco, we witness a really interesting scene and that has strike an understanding and realization in me after a long time of struggle and fatigue.
As my teacher was announcing that the ocean beach is her backyard and people here fishing catch fish all the time. I was still digesting her sentence while we saw this elder man standing and focusing on getting his catch.
As we stand, enjoying the wind and sharing stories, this man caught his fish. The fish is jumping and flopping on the ground. We were so elated to have the opportunity to witness this joyful moment for this man.
As you can see in my illustration, the fish is so lively and full of energy.
It was only a flash second that we realize that a seagull soar by and swiftly caught the fish with its mouth. I was thinking that the seagull is so happy to have the food to himself that he doesn’t have to do the catch and yet still have his food. To my surprise, the seagull quickly flew away and dropped the fish back into the water. Wow! I was totally in awe by the seagull who is fighting with humans to save another species, just because he wanted to.
The elder man was not happy, he chased after the bird and frantically wanting his fish back. I understand that he was not happy that the hard work he has done is now going in vain. Eventually, he grabbed the fish back and buried the fish in the sand to prevent further intrusions from the bird.
My teacher then shared her story of one day as she was meditating and practicing yoga on the beach. A strong wind came and blew away her umbrella which was shedding her from the sun. She decided to let it go and not worry about the umbrella, focus on her yoga pose. As she was coming to a closing with her yoga session, a man came by and asked gently, “Excuse me, is this your umbrella?” It would be frantic and also disruptive to her flow if she was going to stop her yoga session and run after the wind to get the umbrella. As she decided to let it go, her umbrella came back with another person’s help.
This struck something deep inside of me. I recall that yesterday night, as I was cleaning my closet and floor, I saw a giant black moth sitting on the wall. Scared and also disgusted, I used a book to hit it. It ran away. At that time, I was freaking out because I don’t want to have a moth running on my bed while I am sleeping at night. Calm has slipped away and my head was spinning fast to figure out a way to detect the location of where the moth could go. After a while, I gave up because I think I wanted to let it go and focus on finishing cleaning my place first.
But the moth scare was still lingering the back of my head. As I was cleaning the mirror in my bathroom, this brave soul came and sat right next to my hand. In a swift second, I cover it with cleaning cloth, squeezed tightly and flushed it down the toilet.
Coming back to the fish and umbrella, I realize for the past month, I have been holding really tight to a lot of the situations and wanting to control a lot of the outcomes. It makes me tired and dimmed the light in me. Today, I connected the dot and realize that nature is always teaching us when we need it. I was able to let go of the perfectionistic view of myself, the time planning and also tight scheduling for myself after that. It felt so refreshing and my heart is much lighter. I got my power and energy back!
Just like a vase, if it’s full of rocks and past burdens, it would have no space for all the new wonders and things to come in.
Only when we stay in the present and willing to let go, the light comes and the vase now has room to hold these beautiful lotus flowers.
