What Do People Hold On To?

Imaginary Family Feud game show time again!

Yesterday, I asked you to imagine a game show question centered on what people let go of.

Today, our imaginary game show host voice asks: “What do people hold on to? Top Google search answers below:”

(Imagine answers revealing themselves one-at-a-time in some intriguing way.)

            -Parachute

            -Hat

            -Security

            -One’s Center/ One’s Self

            -Higher Power

            -Thread

            -Loved Ones

            -Job

            -Beliefs

            -Nothing in particular . . . just holding on

            -Information

            -Health

            -Money

I will definitely hold on to my parachute if my husband ever wears down my defenses and gets me to go skydiving, and I hold on to my hat if I’m ever wearing one and it’s trying to run off. I might say I’m hanging on by a thread sometimes. But I really wasn’t thinking of those kinds of things when I asked what people hold on to.

The other items on this list are certainly things that people (myself included) expend much energy and emotion clutching. Holding on to some things is hugely important. Other things really aren’t as important and probably shouldn’t be grasped as tightly as we might be doing.

And then, there are those things/people that we’ve never picked up to hold that we really should.

I’d love to hear what you’d add to our game show list above.

Knowing what to hold and what to release isn’t always as easy as I may have made it sound. Life decisions and actions can be confusing. The voices inside our heads and being thrown towards us from the outside are not unlike congressional bills, with all the special interest strings attached, whose urgings could result in us picking up or putting down things that we don’t want to change as we attempt to address the main decision of the moment.

Such moments of decision are darned good times for the famous Serenity Prayer.

You know, even though I’m guilty of saying it, upon reflection, “Just hold on . . . “ isn’t really good advice. It doesn’t even make sense. “Holding on,” by it’s very nature requires something to be held to. Holding to nothing . . . I think that’s about as far as the popular “just hold on” phrase gets us.

This blog post is part of a series of writing (May 31-June 2012) by Tammy Fletcher Bergland about holding on and letting go.   tbergland.blogspot.com

What Do People Let Go Of?

If I were smarter than I am and had more time than I do, I’d create an interactive Family Feud sort of board, complete with music for this next part. As it is, though, you’re all just going to have to imagine a glamorous game show setting with a silky-voiced host asking you . . .

“What do people let go of? Top Google search answers listed below:”

(I so wish these answers would reveal themselves one at a time with separate clicks!)

-A person

-Love

-The past

-Grudges

-Bitterness

-Something we’ve built

-Baggage

-Addictions

-Bad habits

If you were a contestant, would you have argued that additional answers should have been included? What would you have added?

I ran across a couple of simple articles from the popular media, psychological and medical worlds that offer some reasonable advice about letting go. If you’re in an unhealthy, hanging-on situation or if you’re struggling with forgiveness, I suggest taking a look at these pages to help you think through what you need to be doing:

Clues You Should Be Letting Go of Something

How Do You Let Go While You’re Hanging On?

Forgiveness: Letting Go of Grudges and Bitterness

 I figure most of us hit such times at least every now and then. And sometimes, releasing our grasp is one of the hardest but most important things we’ll ever do.

Right now, I need to let go of stress eating (again), so I’m going to work on that . . . sigh . . . and now since I said that so openly, I’m probably REALLY going to have to work on that; it’s just that I’ve had so much stress during the last year  . . . (See first two links above; I’m a classic, messed-up case. HA!) Yes, I laugh, but I seriously do need to work on stress eating. Stress and poor eating habits very much affect this body in bad ways and can shorten a quality lifespan.

I also need to let go of a few much bigger and harder things as well . . . and am working daily to do so.

If you are letting go or need to let go, I wish you wisdom, courage, strength and peace.

This blog post is part of a series of writing (May 31-June 2012) by Tammy Fletcher Bergland about holding on and letting go.   tbergland.blogspot.com

To Hold On? To Let Go?

Michelangelo’s “Creation of Adam” on the Sistine Chapel ceiling sucks me in, the whole painting and the vastness of the ceiling it looks down from, but mostly, that small space between the finger of God and the finger of Adam.

As the story goes, the image depicts the moment of creation. I’m absorbed by the image. I ponder, not the second of imparted life and breath, but the seconds before and afterward.

Adam and God stretch toward to each other, God giving life, Adam receiving life.

Did God pause, just before that touch? Did both pause just afterward? The painting is frozen, with Created and Creator forever not quite touching.

Consider the instant after breath flowed into man, after the startling intensity of that life-touch. Adam, to me, seems to be already pulling away, leaving God and man each with his own realization of the distance between them . . . so close but so separate.

I want them to hold on to each other, but maybe they have to let go? Can they do both at the same time?

This blog post is part of a series of writing (May 31-June 2012) by Tammy Fletcher Bergland about holding on and letting go.   tbergland.blogspot.com