Letting It Go

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The other day I was going through my mail piled up on a counter top in my kitchen.   I accidentally pushed a picture behind my kitchen counter that I had intended to frame that day.  It was an 8x10 full color picture of a majestic female wolf that I had received unexpectedly and I LOVED it.  Well , here was the problem: the counter was flush against the wall with absolutely no clearance between the wall or down below on the floor, however, the picture managed to find a tiny space, just slid down the crack and now was no where to be seen. In an instant the picture was gone and I knew unless we remodeled the kitchen which entailed taking out the custom built cabinet (NOT!) I would never see that wolf picture again. 

For those of you who know me well, besides dolphins (my number one wild animal) and hummingbirds, wolves are right up there.  I stood there is disbelief and then the internal tapes started: "how could I be so careless, why didn't I just clean up the mail a week ago, why did I wait almost two weeks to frame the picture" etc, etc.  I then turned to my husband, laughed and said "Someone, many years from now will have a beautiful surprise."  When I laughed, I just let go and stopped beating myself up.  As quickly as the wolf picture had disappeared, my negative thoughts also instantly vanished.

What a wonderful gift that spirit gave me in that instance.  I was able to think of someone else who might find the picture sometime in the future and be delighted.  I let go of my attachment to how things needed to be for me to be happy.  I was fully in the moment and it felt divine. 

Okay, I can hear you saying, so what, it was just a picture, but what if we decided to do this with even much larger unexpected/stressful events in our lives?  So often we operate like we are in control and expect certain results from what we do. When things don't turn out as planned we bitch and moan and sometimes feel victimized. As we evolve, we begin to realize that being in victim consciousness no longer serves us and in fact keeps us very small and unempowered. What if being fully in the present means "seeing" everything that happens as an opportunity to transform our limited beliefs? 

Today, may you notice the beauty of being in the present as you let go of whatever stressful thoughts have you living in the future or the past.