Grasping, Gripping, Groping, Griping

Sometimes I feel like most of my life has been nothing but

grasping...

gripping…

groping…

griping…


Grasping what is not mine.

Gripping what is temporal.

Groping for what is permanent.

Griping about what I don’t have.

Sort of like a dog chasing its tail,

I have lived my life in repeating circles.

After a heartbreaking experience

I spend myself with tears of loss.

Sometimes for many months,

sometimes for many years.

Then there is a shift and

I spend myself with tears of longing.

Sometimes for many months,

sometimes for many years.

Finally . . .

I begin to realize that

“Loss” is the past.

I cannot bring that back…

“Longing” is the future.

That is out of my hands…

What if life were to be spent on nothing but love

…of each moment

…of each person

…of life

…all of life?

Each experience?

Every encounter?

Fully present, fully aware, fully conscious, fully alive.

What if the only tears were tears of love? What if???

Now, life speaks to me.

And I listen . . . more attentively.

Life speaks . . .

Sometimes of its beauty.

Sometimes of its joy.

Sometimes of its losses.

Sometimes of its longings.

Often of its loves.

But mostly, life speaks to me of its ephemeral nature.

Nothing but a blink and all is gone.

Nothing but dust in the wind.

All of life is but a process of letting go.

Nothing on this earth is permanent.

Not one thing . . .

And yet . . . and yet we hang on,

grasping . . grasping so fiercely . . . why?

gripping . . . gripping so tightly . . . to what?

groping . . . groping so intensely . . . for what?

griping . . . griping so vehemently . . . about what?

“If I loose my grip, will I take flight?” (Cockburn)

“We must be willing to get rid
 of the life we’ve planned
 so as to have the life
 that is waiting for us.”
~ Joseph Campbell

“And then came human beings;
humans wanted to cling but
there was nothing to cling to.”

“Live to the point of tears.”

“Man is the only creature who refuses
 to be what he is.”
― Albert Camus

For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can’t readily accept the God formula, the big answers don’t remain stone-written. We adjust to new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command nor faith a dictum. I am my own god. We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state, and our educational system. We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us. (Charles Bukowski)

“The soul does not grow by addition but by subtraction.”~ Meister Eckhart

Choose to Live Fully and Intensely

BY SOFO ARCHON

Life’s journey is short, and so you should make sure to get the most out of it, otherwise you will finish it being filled with regrets, not having experienced the gifts that existence has open-handedly offered you.

To live fully is risky, however, and you need to be courageous enough to expose yourself to dangers that you might confront along your way.

Two seeds lay side by side in the fertile soil.

The first seed said, “I want to grow! I want to send my roots deep into the soil beneath me, and thrust my sprouts through the earth’s crust above me … I want to unfurl my tender buds like banners to announce the arrival of spring … I want to feel the warmth of the sun on my face and the blessing of the morning dew on my petals!”

And so she grew…

The second seed said, “Hmmmm. If I send my roots into the ground below, I don’t know what I will encounter in the dark. If I push my way through the hard soil above me I may damage my delicate sprouts … what if I let my buds open and a snail tries to eat them? And if I were to open my blossoms, a small child may pull me from the ground. No, it is much better for me to wait until it is safe.”

And so she waited…until a yard hen scratching around in the early spring ground for food found the waiting seed and promptly ate it. [1]

The fear of danger is what keeps people from pursing an active, passionate life — thus, they are not truly living but just surviving. But to just survive is close to being dead, and what is the point of playing dead before you’ve actually died? You will die anyway, sooner or later, so choose to live fully and intensely, savoring every single moment, before it’s too late.

THE POWER OF LETTING GO