Sweet Release

I have a habit of collecting things.  Especially unfinished projects.  But I also like to collect old cards from people I don’t remember (I once had a friend named Peach?), notebooks from high school with math calculations, and can anyone tell me why I still have a Barbie Fashion calendar from 2005?  Anyone?

Letting go of anything is difficult for me, whether it be material possessions, old friends, jokes I’ve told since I was a kid.  I still go once a year to put a rose on a high school friend’s grave who died in 1996.

So, how do I manage in teaching my daughter this hard lesson of letting go?

It started when we found “Willie” the turtle, who was sitting in the middle of the road in traffic.  Cars were dashing about to keep from hitting him.  Kate and I couldn’t leave him there, so I flipped on the emergency lights, cautiously got out of the car and rescued him.

Over a few days Kate and I tried to make him feel at home.  We put water and rocks in a huge Rubbermaid box and made him a nice oasis.  Katelyn put stickers on his shell and and took him everywhere.  She loved taking him to camp for everyone to see her new pet!  Loving him came easy for her because, unfortunately for being the only child, she is sometimes lonely.  She liked to think of Willie as a loner and she was his new friend.

But Willie was a wild animal.  He didn’t want to be in a box, no matter how much we pimped it out.  He was constantly trying to find new ways of breaking free.  Willie also refused to eat.  The vet said turtles don’t have metabolism like humans, and don’t require food every day, but if after two weeks he doesn’t eat, I would need to take him to be examined.  I was sure Willie was sick…homesick.

I knew what had to be done.  So, we took Willie to a nice pond, but before we let him go, I explained why we had to let him go. “Willie isn’t happy.  And he could die if we don’t let him be free.  This is a life lesson called ‘Letting Go’.  Sometimes we have to let go, even when we don’t want to or it’s painful.  We let go because it’s the right thing to do.  Even though this hurts to let Willie go, you are a brave girl for doing the right thing!  I’m so proud of you!”

Kate understood and knew what to do. 

She picked him up out of the bucket and sat him down on the edge.

She cried as we watched him for awhile. 

But all of a sudden, an amazing thing happened.  We were looking out over the pond and we started seeing these little things poking up out of the water.  We counted 6 of them!  I then realized what they were!  They were turtles! 

Kate said, “Mommy, look!  He has so many friends that came to meet him!”  Even though her face was wet with tears, letting go became a little easier as she knew he was going to be okay.

I thought this lesson was for her to learn, but in actuality Kate taught me something-letting go can be easy if we change the way we look at it.

So, I am going to say goodbye to that Size 0 pair of jeans in my closet and embrace my body as it is now.  Goodbye broken stereo that I vowed to fix, for I can afford a new one.  Goodbye 2003 copy of Glamour, for I know what steps to take if I ever want to seduce a man.

Aaaaahh…letting go never felt so good!