I’m smiling as I start this blog. Upon rechecking the source of a quote that has been meaningful to me, I found that what I thought was an adaptation of a quote from the Buddha, is actually from author, Ziad K. Abdelnour. (Forgive me Ziad, I’ve shared this quote so many times and haven’t given you your due credit!)
The quote is this:
“In the end, what matters most is how well you lived, how well you loved, and how well you learned to let go.”
An idea like this is personal to the one who reads it. For me, I’m struck by what is often so hard to do: Let go. And I know what happens when I don’t...the fear or resentment or pain I feel won’t let my heart open to love, which of course burdens my perspective with that same fear, resentment or pain, which then limits my ability to fully live. Far reaching consequences for a choice that is often made without my conscious knowledge.
I am so grateful to know that there is a way out of this tangle: it’s awareness. When I become aware of a habit as potentially isolating and destructive as this, I can choose something different. Meditation has been the path to that awareness, a path which blesses my life with more openness, compassion and clarity. I know when I step away from that awareness, and choose to hold on rather than let go, my pain returns. And at this point in my life, I know that I don’t deserve self-made-pain.
Today I wish for us all the sweetness of well-lived lives, filled with love,
awareness and
courageous
letting
go’s.
