I've been rereading Illusions by Richard Bach. This piece from the book, to me, makes an excellent story at this time of year. It's hugely relevant to my life and thought it may also be to yours..
The Master answered and said, “Once there lived a village of creatures along the bottom of a great crystal river.
“The current of the river swept silently over them all - young and old, rich and poor, good and evil, the current going its own way, knowing only its own crystal self. Each creature in its own manner clung tightly to the twigs and rocks of the river bottom, for clinging was their way of life, and resisting the current what each had learned from birth.
But one creature said at last, ‘I am tired of clinging. Though I cannot see it with my eyes, I trust that the current knows where it is going. I shall let go, and let it take me where it will. Clinging, I shall die of boredom.’ The other creatures laughed and said, ‘Fool! Let go, and that current you worship will throw you tumbled and smashed across the rocks, and you will die quicker than boredom!’ But the one heeded them not, and taking a breath did let go, and at once was tumbled and smashed by the current across the rocks.
Yet in time, as the creature refused to cling again, the current lifted him free from the bottom, and he was bruised and hurt no more. And the creatures downstream, to whom he was a stranger, cried, ‘See a miracle! A creature like ourselves, yet he flies! He has come to save us all!’. And the one carried in the current said, ‘I am no more a saviour than you.
The river delights to lift us free, if only we dare let go. Our true work is this voyage, this adventure.’"
Easier said than done of course! Letting go is often accompanied by fear and trepidation, but the gain always outweigh the risk, if we're willing to give in to it and learn whatever messages are offered for us to learn.
Happy New Year to you all. I can't tell you how much it's meant to me, setting up this little community full of love and laughter, generosity of spirit and adventure. Here's to 2020, whatever it may bring for us all.