Surrender

A few years ago I wrote an academic paper on Spiritual Surrender. When I started the project, I kept imagining a dove resting in my hands. I could feel its breath; I could feel its heartbeat. A song came also. " The dove, she's a pretty bird; she sings as she flys." Later, I sketched a picture of the image and I tacked it to the bulletin board by my desk. I was certain that I knew what the image meant. I thought that when I understood spiritual surrender, the image would change and the dove would fly out of my hands, released and free.

But after looking at the picture, a friend commented that she thought the image was about the hands, not the bird. Months later, after completing the project, I realized that she was right. I had it backwards. I learned that spiritual surrender was not about me opening my hands to set the dove free; it was about me opening my hands so that the dove could fly in and set ME free. It was then that I named the bird Grace.

How often have you kept you hands so tightly clenched, manipulating, efforting, and pushing so hard that you failed to let the energy of the universe in to help you?

Why not try letting go of something? Let go of goals, plans and trying to control consequences and people. Instead, sit back and open yourself to the mysterious forces that keep the planets in their places, and the flowers blooming every spring. Open your hands and let go just a little and watch to see what flies in to you.