Living Free Or The Art Of Letting Go

I told you 'bout Strawberry Fields, you know the place where nothing is real, well here's another place you should know, where everything flows.

Glass Onion—John Lennon/The Beatles

I've been talking about a concept recently, which I've just started to wrestle with. The idea I'm speaking of is "letting go" of the past. To disassociate ourselves from the story that happened "to us." We define ourselves by the events of our lives and carry these stories as if they are badges of honor or war stories. What if each story, memory, experience actually weighed a few ounces. We'd have to somehow figure out a way to fit them all together and carry them like "Marley" in the Charles Dickens classic tale, "A Christmas Carol." Picture these stories, deeds, pains we suffered and pains we caused like the chains he had to carry in the afterlife. Well, we carry those stories, those images, and they do weigh us down and poison us. Invisibly. Silently, to most. Behind the scenes lurks the darkness we dare not reveal to people, until we're close enough to them. I don't think we consciously let it all out. These dark discharges of our behavior seem to escape like steam from a geyser! Most spiritual programs teach us to "let go" of the past and be here now. Yet many programs don't really address diet and elimination as part of their approach. This is not their area of expertise so they leave the topic alone. What I cannot figure out is why they wouldn't at least use an adjunct group and instruct the people to seek this work.

We Are Spirits In A Material World

[A nice line from that song by The Police.]

We're supposed to let go of the past where story is concerned. But we hold onto the past where food residue is concerned. For all the planes to move together we want to pay close attention to the physical, as well as the spiritual. People don't realize how far out of themselves they can be just by having a few drinks. That residue gets in the cracks and begins to eat away at our "fabric." As more waste builds up in our system, we carry that along with the rest. It can be seen that everything we pass through our body, leaves behind weight as small amounts of residue sticks in the spongy organs of elimination. Mucus contributes, like a fly trap that catches its prey because the material is coated in adhesive. So does our bowels snag bits and pieces or waste with each meal. Likewise, our stories begin to stick with us and with each experience we have—the dramatic cadences register as pain or discomfort or unpleasantness. This is stored with the rest of the stories. The word story comes from the anglo-latin (Late Middle English) word "historia." Which was shortened to "history." This is the basis for the word story. Hi-story! Our stories are history! That is the nature of story. Past! So allow the story to die with the past. Give your spirit a colonic. As we cleanse our tissue, we no longer feel the pains of our history. Why then do we give life to that which has passed and is merely an image or illusion.

Yesterday Is A Ghost. Tomorrow Is A Phantom. Today Is Where We Are!

When a movie ends and the credits roll, we eventually leave the theater. There is nothing more to see. Why then do we insist on staring back at the past. Dissecting and analyzing. Or is it anal-izing? What can it do for us. Why do we relive our negative experiences? Perhaps because of the stagnation on the physical plane? Or is it strictly a mind spasm? It is said as we relive past negative experiences, the mind and body experiences "the story" as though it is really happening. So that trauma keeps working at us. Imagine that. If that happened with a stubbed toe, we'd be sure to never think of it again for fear of that sharp pain. This may be something we do as a part of unconsciousness, which is intrinsically tied to our deadened physical experience. Meaning, with waste locked in the tissue, we feel less on the physical plane. Emotions are part physical. Intuition is also felt more than thought. So, we are far more challenged when the body is not cleansed. We hurt our ability to think clearly, therefore shutting the mind off or slowing it down becomes almost impossible. Peace and quiet in the mind is a goal to be reached so that we are in control of the mind and therefore the thoughts. Letting go is a nice concept but without a means for this process to be facilitated, we seem to spin our wheels. It's like a revolving door. We go round and round, hoping this time we'll feel it or see it. Become enlightened or get a glimpse. All we really want is to feel as though we are moving forward in life. But to move forward in life we must acknowledge two things. We must let the past fade into nothing. Because that's all the past is. To assist in this difficult task we need to shed the waste that holds us back or weighs us down. These two seemingly separate issues do in fact go hand in hand. One helps the other.

I wrote this today because I see this parallel all the time. More so lately. Life presents us with new challenges every single day. Sometimes many in one day. So stop trying to carry it all with you. If we picture Steve Martin in the movie "The Jerk" when he decides to leave home. He starts out saying he needs nothing at all. . . "except THIS! Oh and this. And definitely this!" Before the scene ends he's carrying forty-two different, meaningless items. This is what we do with stories from yesterday. Leave yesterday's items, both physical and otherwise with yesterday. Nothing from yesterday is real, except as thought forms in your mind and as waste in your bowels. So dump them all and feel the lightness!

Be well.

Tom DeVito