By Maryanne Comaroto
What if you just let go? Let it all go? All your attachments: your life as you know it, your identity, what you think of other people, of what other people think of you? Any and all ideas you have about who you are, what is and how it supposed to be, vanishing in the distance as you voluntarily let them go?
The stories about your childhood, about the person who cut you off in the parking lot, about “How come that person has more than me or isn’t as good?” Who did what to you, who didn’t do enough. Who owes you, who you need to avenge. How you are going to save the world, your child, the animals, yourself.
What the government is doing—or not—and how you could do it better. What other people should be doing instead of what they are doing, and how obvious that is. What time you should get up, what time you should get to bed, eat lunch, color your roots, get rid of that old couch, that bad relationship. What if you let it go?
What if you stopped worrying about whether or not you should stop drinking Diet Coke, boycott Starbucks, and hurry, before the movie starts. About whether or not you're smarter, more evolved, more competent, a leader, are here to do something BIG, are special, entitled and privileged. That you’re a fast reader, a slow learner, have a powerful job, or are tired of being unemployed. That you’re sensitive, fragile, fierce, overwhelmed, overworked and underpaid, discriminated against—and if someone could just see who you really were, maybe you would believe it yourself.
That your computer is too slow, Mercury retrograde is bad, online dating will save you, and that wearing a size 4 means you’re hot. That rich people suck, corporations are corrupt and “life is hard and then you die.” That there is someone out there that will save you, that you may go to hell, or that telling someone the way it is will help them see the light. That being nice will make people like you, or that not having sex means someone might leave. Your favorite restaurant, favorite pair of shoes, favorite city to travel to. That you need to meditate or relax.
That anyone knows what’s best for you, that it matters if you are loved, and that there is such a thing as a soul mate. That there is anywhere to get—but you had better get there before it’s gone, as there are only so many windows of opportunity. That anything is bad or good, positive or negative, hurry up, slow down, that there is such a thing as success and failure and that anyone’s life is anyone’s responsibility.
That everyone you know is struggling, many people you know are sick, a third of our nation is obese, times are tough, life is short, and that if you pray hard enough God will reward you instead of the three-hundred-thousand other people who just died in Haiti, write you a personal check and make it all better. That things are getting worse/looking up, the earth’s magnetic poles are shifting, and blue is the new black. That you have nothing to give up—and let that go, too.
What if you let all that go? Imagine it if you can, even for a moment. Go through the life you live right now and let it all go. Who would you be? Good for you! Now let that go too! You may find that death becomes you…
