‘How to Let It Go’ discussed along with today’s, For A Better Life Podcast 

I would certainly be a hypocrite to claim that I never had to learn how to let it go when a life difficulty was tearing at my heart. Regardless of overcoming adversities, life has actually been difficult at times.

However life has actually been complete when learning how to let things go and finding newer experiences.

There were times in my life when I made choices based on exactly what others determined for me and not on exactly what I truly desired.

I’ve included in this For A Better Life Podcast and its accompanying article, a fun story I’d excerpted from my 2nd book of the ever-developing series, Mastering Your Own Spiritual Freedom.

The story urges us to learn how to let it go, especially when losing a loved one, or when a loved one dies.

 

 

As you were discovering exactly how to learn new things when you were a small child, you had made many mistakes, like falling down and having to get back up.

Isn’t life so much like that?  

We stumble and wound ourselves yet the injury heals and life goes on as we learn to start overcoming struggles all over again.

Allow me to describe a conversation a man once had with my friend Connie, an artist whose career found unexpected success.

We never know the adversities in life that another individual has had to overcome.

It’s like A Course in Miracles says,” Every brother you meet becomes a witness for Christ or for the ego, depending on what you perceive in him.”

It seems that it’s human nature for judging others rather than accepting them for who they truly are.

Losing a Loved One

I’d also told this story in a previous article where it’s message was about why judging others only leads us toward more adversity to deal with. So today I’d like to share it again with improved meaning:

“One Saturday morning Connie and I were seated in the bleachers of a Little League ball field, watching her son play baseball.

As Connie closed her sketchbook, the strange man added, “Ah, I see yer doin’ some sketchin’. Can I see ’em?”.

All of a sudden our concentration was interrupted by the booming voice of a tall, portly man who was the grandfather of another baseball player at the game that day.

The older man darted out of the starting gate with a full gallop of questions, yet clearly not one for judging others.

Connie extended her hand as O’Malley’s eyes met hers with a stare. He glanced at me with a nod, but it was evident that it was Connie he wanted to talk to.

She flipped through about ten pages for him to glance at. All the drawings were of her son in various poses around the baseball diamond.

This man was very unusual, which is why my memory must have held onto him…

“I’ve been seein’ ya here for the longest time and I’m wonderin’ what kind of life belongs to such a fine-mannered woman. Would ya mind tellin’ me about yourself?”.

“How ya doin’, ma’am? Nice to meet ya! The name is O’Malley.”

He slapped his right knee…

O’Malley paused briefly for Connie to give a nod that she did not mind answering a few personal questions. He was friendly..

Connie was startled, and I just smiled in mild amusement, as we both looked up at his ruddy face that framed a mouth in perpetual motion, wide frame glasses, and a graying handlebar mustache.

“Where ‘d ya grow up? On Lake Erie, hey…What’s the water like there?

I miss my wife that way, too, in that way, mind ya…

Did the car accident kill anyone else?”, He added after Connie mentioning losing a loved one, her sister in a car crash.

“How ‘d ya get over it? … Oh, you still miss her, and feel it was your fault, eh? Ya mean ta tell me it happened right by the lake? “

As Connie explained, O’Malley stared and paused out over the ball field. It was a few moments before he spoke again.

“I couldn’t get my wife to the hospital in time. Died right there in my car, she did.

Sometimes when I walk into our kitchen, I can still smell her perfume and I can almost see her standin’ at the window lookin’ out at the back yard and her garden…”

“What happened with yer sissy?”, he calmly asked.

“And did ya ever win a fishin’ contest? The tryin’s what gives me a charge,” as he tried to change the subject.

He blurted, “There’s somethin’ real important about bein’ able to miss somebody that much, even after they’ve been gone for years. It kinda makes ya a better person, don’t ya think?

“Do ya have yer mum and dad still with ya?”

He was aware of the nature of forgiveness and the importance of knowing how to let it go…

“What made ya settle on bein’ a Christian? … Has religion always been important to ya? … Well, I’ll be darned..”

O’Malley had no reservations about finding the truth about Connie…

A Course in Miracles states, “What can it be but arrogance to think your little errors can not be undone by Heaven’s justice … Justice looks on all in the same way … demands no sacrifice.”

He had no inclination to even suggest judging others to my friend, while simply showing understanding and his knowledge of her true heart.

“Oh well, not so bad bein’ divorced, eh? It sure seems yer a good mom …

Ya think yer a little hard on the boy, do ya? … Well, I guess that’s just bein’ a good parent and all.”

He showed no need to label her or to prove himself an expert with a need to be judging others.

“Isn’t that just great!”, he chuckled with a raspy voice.

He liked her for what she was, and there was nothing about Connie’s past that could change the way he saw her.

He was unabashed and spontaneous, and he had no judgments or pretensions to make.

He was never flustered by the response or a topic Connie gave, and not a type of individual for judging others.

No matter how terrible the facts might seem to be or any of her wrongdoings, he had no inhibitions about uncovering them.

“Say, where’s yer husband?” (Of course, he looked and smiled over at me.)

Laughin’s the best medicine, I always say. When yer mad, I’ll bet yer a handful!”

On and on O’Malley questioned Connie as she answered…

“I’ll bet ya got yerself a sense of humor, too … That’s great!.”

O’Malley’s questions took an unusual turn without intent for judging others.

He asked, “Do ya believe in God, eh? … A Christian, isn’t that somethin’?.”

Learning from Life’s Difficulties

As you look back on the life you have actually lived so much, do you have any kind of sensation of remorse or regret?

Or have you chosen to learn how to let it go and begin again, while learning from the past. 

How to let it go gives us a lesson on getting back up when we fall.

I have to confess that difficulties in life is full of such traumas as losing a loved one, or when a loved one dies, or a broken marriage that only seems can’t be fixed.

But how to let go of things means understanding that someplace along the way we as humans do make errors.

Regardless of how to overcome adversity, life has actually been difficult yet has actually been complete for me when I set my sails on discovering new experiences.

There were times in my life when I made choices that were not of my better judgement and I had to learn how to let it go, learn from the experience, and move forward in life.

In making life’s choices, making them on your own from your own heart and inner judgement as what to do next would be to your advantage.

In order to find out how to let it go and move forward in life, or we may say, to go with life and its hurdles, you must make your own options and learn along the way.

After all, how to let it go is of the habits of highly effective people and is how successful people grow.

(This related article helps to let things go by increased self-awareness and personal growth now with a self-awareness test.) 

To learning how to let things go,

James Nussbaumer

PS:  I invite you to sign up RIGHT HERE for the EVERYDAY MIRACLES newsletter where we (you the reader, and I, the author) bring our mind together for self-success and for a better life.

See what others are discovering!

See more at the Home page or About/Books on my ever-developing series for having a better life—reflections of A Course in Miracles, or see the display at Ozark Mountain Publishing Co.

Please Support My Work: Many have benefited from this material and we are offering you access to my blog, self-help library, other articles, webinars and lectures and for A Better Life Podcast.

By the way, if you’d like to get a copy of A Course in Miracles, hop over to the Self-Help Library page. 🙂

Thank you so much for your support!