Are You a Failure if You Let Go?

When I fully enter time’s swift current, enter into the current moment with the weight of all my attention, I slow the torrent with the weight of me all here.

~ Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are

In December, I am continuing (barely) to participate in the Two Pages-a-Day writing challenge.  And trying desperately to get in a holiday mood.

T

his morning, I discovered how easy it is to be accidentally hit by a train.

Obviously, I didn’t discover this by actually getting smushed, as I am well and sane enough to be writing to you now.

It was morning.  And I was awake. Barely.

I didn’t have time for coffee.  I never have time for coffee.  This is because I hold on to sleep and cozy warmth like a grizzly hold on to a big, fat salmon. 

Enough said.

It had a good fifteen minutes before my train showed up.  And it was past 7am ~ the time that the Amtrak usually passes by.  As I waited, mentally running through blog post ideas, my To Dos, and my Christmas gift list, a freight train went by on the opposite tracks.  They don’t travel very fast, but they are loud and long.

I love watching trains.  Their power and sheer size thrill me on a visceral level.  I like to feel the platform shake from the rumbles of their clickety-clacks.

Image credit: Pinterest

This freight train was particularly long.  I kept my head turned toward the right, to try and catch a glimpse of the end.

And never heard the super fast Amtrak commuter train rushing down the track closest to the platform.

If I had been any closer to the yellow line, I would have been whooshed off my feet and under the tracks.  Or my head would have been taken off.

Letting Go≠ Failure

As it was, only my vintage wine hat blew off.  But as I caught my breath and waited out the adrenaline rush, I wondered: what else am I so focused on, so reluctant to let go, that life and other opportunities rush right by me?

So often we hold on to beliefs, habits, ways of thinking, even people and relationships that we should have let go of a long time ago.

Letting go is not synonymous with failing.

Letting go means you have the room for a new habit.

It means you have more time to devote to keeping healthy relationships in repair.

It means you have your attention focused on life.   On the here and now.

Otherwise, we miss the train that’s coming down our side of the tracks.

Oremus pro invicem,

~ Mikaela

What are you holding on to?  Is it distracting you from the here and now?