We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us - Joseph Campbell

Letting Go Of The Life We Planned

 

Sometimes we hold so tightly to things or situations or people. We fear the unknown. We doubt we can cope without them. Better the devil we know!

But when we do finally let go of the job, the person, the conviction to which we’ve clung till our knuckles are ragged, we often find something more wonderful waiting for us.

We must be willing to let go of the life we planned
so as to have the life that is waiting for us.

~ Joseph Campbell

This quote is one of my absolute favorites.

And the same idea is goose-bumpingly expressed in a song I adore, Peter Gabriel‘s Solsbury Hill.

As Gabriel says about the song’s meaning,

It’s about being prepared to lose what you have for what you might get, or what you are for what you might be.
It’s about letting go.

Which is what he did when he left Genesis for his remarkable solo career.

I think the idea applies to anything we protect a little too defensively – whether clutter in our homes, beliefs in our heads, ideas about the way things should be, people in our lives.

If your knuckles are white from gripping too hard, maybe it’s time to loosen your hold. And wander into the life that’s waiting for you.

What do you think?

Are you clinging too tightly to the things you planned?

If you let go of what you are, what else might you be?

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