Learning to release with grace
Our congregation has experienced the releasing of two beloved members quite recently and celebrated both their lives at memorial services at our center this week.
There is something quite healing about gathering with dear friends to cry and laugh together, sharing special memories and honoring the lives of precious people. It can also provide an opportunity to exercise our faith by releasing them lovingly to their greater expression of life in the heart of God.
It is not only physical transition that requires our trust in letting others go, as a relocation, a marriage or divorce, a new job or a student leaving for college all provide opportunities to learn to let go gracefully. These changes are not always easy, but we can learn to view them through the eyes of love, rather than loss, if we are willing to perceive the larger picture.
Life is not static, nor are our experiences. We do well to allow ourselves to flow with the forward, adventurous movement of life, rather than attempting to hold on to the way things used to be. You would not be comfortable attempting to take a seat at your first grade desk, as you have grown since then. Similarly, we have outgrown beliefs which no longer serve us, occupations we have moved beyond and even relationships that are now complete.
The important thing is to release people, places and things with love and appreciation, wishing the highest and the best for every person and recalling the mutual gifts of all experiences and relationships. We can enjoy our possessions without allowing them to possess us, circulate them for the pleasure of others when the time is right and remain in that wonderful sense of newness, as we await our greater good with a cheerful expectancy.
It is when we live in a heightened awareness of the eternal flow of life and the loving presence of God that it becomes easier to begin to rejoice when a loved one leaves the earth. We understand that his or her next adventure is a beautiful, spiritual advancement, as we know that the continuity of life is true for all of us.
Even the promotion of a colleague to a new worksite or the departure of a dear neighbor to a nicer house out of town can bring feelings of sadness, but rejoicing in their greater good is the means by which we enter into grace and experience a sweet, authentic release. Let's live in the flow of life today and every day, releasing with ease and receiving with gratitude.
The Rev. Maxine Kaye serves as interim minister at Yuma Center for Spiritual Living. To receive daily inspirational messages, go to TheConsciousConnections.com.
