Last weekend I really tried to avoid blogging and being online, feeling the need to just pull back and do other things. As a result, I did not participate in Scavenger Hunt Sunday (SHS) as I had been, and though it felt odd not to do that it also was nice to just relax and enjoy some normal daily activities. Like…reading a book, cleaning house a bit, taking a nap…you get the idea.
I do like the photo “prompts” that SHS gives each week because it challenges us to be creative with those lenses. This week the words for our photo ideas include “water”…so today My Camera and I decided to see what we could see and explored a local park for a while.
As I walked around the park, I heard the scratchy sound of a single leaf scraping along on the sidewalk on this very windy day. When I turned around to see where it was headed, maybe to see if I could get a photo of it in the air, I saw that it had suddenly and quietly landed in the water. The water has it now, firmly yet gently in its grip, letting it float along until it will get caught along the side of the pond in a trash heap or simply get so saturated that it sinks.
If you are at all like me, or even if you are not, you probably know how hard it is to sometimes “let go” of Stuff in life, especially thoughts that do not lift us up. Especially wrongs done to us by someone else. Especially hurts from the past, anger, unmet expectations. Can you hear them as they scratch, scratch along in your mind, pestering you and returning even though you’re tired of them?
What if we could simply let those thoughts fall into the water? You know, acknowledge them for what they are and let them go. (Maybe the image of drowning that leaf would work better in some cases….you decide.) Just as the sound from that leaf fluttering along the sidewalk suddenly became silent when it hit the water, imagine the quiet in your mind, the peace, the calm of letting go of what no longer serves us.
I can say the for me, the image of the water catching that leaf and consuming it over time is powerful. Maybe you know of other ways, different rituals, or exercises that help you let go of a burden.
Never will I say that this is easy. It certainly isn’t for me. Yet today’s image just gives me the inspiration to try, and I hope it will for you, too.