These past few months my life has been filled with examples of letting go.
- Letting go of children as they establish their own families.
- Letting go of material belongings, some that seem to have been unfairly taken away.
- Letting go of old habits that aren’t so healthy in the second half of life.
- Letting go of salt and sugar because this almost 50 year old body has changed.
- Letting go of past dreams because maturity has shown their potential to become nightmares.
- Letting go…Letting go….Letting go.
Letting go isn’t all bad. Sure it can hurt a bit when we pry open our hands that have held on for so long, but after the initial pain, letting go is freeing. It allows us time, space and energy to reach out and grab hold of something new.
I was much more focused on the pain part of letting go as yesterday came to its end. Jeff and I had ordered the new Netflix CD that allows us to watch movies through our Wii, very exciting. As we flipped through the movies available to us, we stopped on Barbara Cook singing Sondheim. We pressed play and settled back.
Toward the end of the performance Barbara introduced a song from Annie Get Your Gun. I was not at all prepared for what I was about to hear, it is just a song from Annie Get Your Gun after all. The words went like this:
I got lost in his arms, don’t ask me just how it happens, I wish I knew.
I can’t believe that it’s happened, and still it’s true.
I got lost in his arms – and I had to stay.
It was dark in his arms, and I lost my way.
From the dark came a voice and it seemed to say; there you go, there you go.
How I felt as I fell, I just can’t recall.
But his arms held me fast and it broke the fall.
And I said to my heart, as it foolishly kept jumping all around.
I got lost,
But look what I’ve found.
With tears in my eyes I quickly googled the song title to read the lyrics. You see letting go can make you feel lost. Letting go can make you feel hopeless, that is unless there is someone walking along side of you.
As I am learning to let go, I am ever aware of a God that has promised to walk along side. As I read through the lyrics again, I saw the word “his” as “His”… and was overwhelmed at what I’ve found.