Unattached to Attachments
I was driving and found myself laughing hysterically and uncontrollably. It has been a long time since laughter has taken over and caused me to lose myself completely in its grip.
My brother has been working on a project and I decided to spend the afternoon with him and offer moral support. I was on my way to his barn when I began reflecting on realizations that came last evening. I wrote about them in my blog from yesterday entitled, Change. The nutshell? Letting go of the idea that I can create change in others by my actions and feeling like a failure if the world doesn’t improve because of my efforts.
So as I was driving I had this image of me whopping people over the head with my love for the planet. I’ll make you get it! That’s what started the belly laughs. I felt a huge rush of energy clear out remnants of left-over omnipotence and the image came of me loving someone so much I beat them over the head with love….isn’t that hilarious? For some reason those images completely cracked me up and it felt good. Well…actually…it felt great!
I was reminded again that my only desire is simply to allow love to flow through me and out into the world without attachment to who accepts it or what positive changes happen. What freedom! How much energy I’ve used to try and persuade, cajole, encourage positive change in others while it has depleted me. The laughter helped me feel the insanity of those crusades and release leftover crumbs of that way of thinking.
Isn’t it interesting how no matter the cause we are drawn to…whether it’s saving polar bears, stopping the Keystone XL pipeline, having health insurance for everyone, balancing a budget, gun rights, helping homeless people, helping homeless animals….our passion is what drives us. Our love is what fuels our work, our drive to make a difference. Being attached to our opinion, our work making the difference is the glitch…that’s where we stumble. That’s where we fail.
If I say I love you, share my innermost feelings and show relentless support and you tell me to go away, have I failed? Not in any way. I took the risk to share and it didn’t change your response. It doesn’t make you or me a bad person.
If you tell me that polar bears have very little sea ice on which to live and I don’t donate $100 to your cause, it doesn’t negate your work or my right to direct my energies elsewhere. Being attached to outcomes is so self-defeating, so damaging.
What would it be like to live without attachments? What if happiness and joy didn’t depend on how others responded to our choices, our passions, the lengths we go to to create positive outcomes? What would life be like if we simply did what we felt called to do with love and passion and dedication simply because it brought us immense joy? And allowed others that same freedom.
Wouldn’t it be great to let go of attachments? To be unattached to attachments….now that is living!
