It’s letting go of expectation.
Letting go of fear.
Letting go of doubt.
Letting go of the hurts.
Letting go of the disappointments.
Letting go of the needs.
Letting go of the stories.
Letting go of the untruths.
Letting go of that time you did that thing you shouldn’t have done.
Letting go of feeling foolish, knowing you were just young. Unformed. Learning. Trying.
Letting go of the need to be perfect. Correct. Proper.
Letting go of what’s expected of you, even if they’re your own expectations. Especially then.
Letting go of the voice in your head that tells you you are shit.
Letting go of the hatred of your skin. It’s just flesh. Just bones. Just your transportation on earth.
Letting go of the need to control what happens.
Letting go of feeling bad because you’re not letting go enough.
I’m starting to get it now. I really am.
“It’s just flesh. Just bones. Just your transportation on earth.”
What a wonderful sentence on a wonderful summer evening. Thank you!
i am supposed to be getting school lunches, sorting breakfast, helping with spelling words… but instead i am crying… i am supposed to be writing a self description where all of these things you talk about are dissolved…. i find it such a challenge –
all of these things have defined me…
i am ready to let go too…. it’s just the how….
thankyou Suzannah
I needed this today…..really. Thank you!
ohhh love, i am sending you a big hug right now ((jane))
we will find a way. little steps, okay? xx
this is so lovely, something we all need reminding of now and again. Thanks.
I had a necklace made with those words. Let it go. It reminds me of things I need to let go of.
Hitting home right now, hard. XOXO.
Greetings, cheers, and aloha from a Hawaii expat living part-time in London!
I just discovered your blog through sfgirlbythebay and love the beautiful pictures and posts!
When I started yoga earlier this month, my mantra was ‘Just let go’. I found it deeply forgiving, restorative, clarifying… but, above all, kind. In general, we’re not kind enough to ourselves. Letting go can be the beginning of extending this kindness.
Wishing you kindness
Amy
xx
Oh gosh, all so so true and yet so damned hard to follow.
wow. this is a great post. i needed this today- a lot to let go of at the moment… thanks.
thank you for this post. thank you for unveiling a part of yourself.
There’s so much I relate to in your post.. perhaps even all of it but what jumped out at me was the letting go of hatred of your skin.. made me cry.. ugh! I know that sounds mad.. I’m 46 yrs old and suddenly have the skin of a teenager :( I don’t talk about… I try to hide it.. I hate it.. I’m on medication for it.. I hate it though.. so maybe now.. time to let go..! Thanks for sharing.. inspirational as always
This is exactly what I needed to read/hear…
Have had an incredibly difficult day & feel as though I am hanging on by a thread that is quickly fraying…
I went to see my therapist today (what an incredible blessing & source of wisdom she is in my life at this time…i believe everyone should go through the catharsis that accompanies counseling at some time in their lives . . .)
I have been meditating on the Serenity Prayer for peace in my life today…
“God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.”
–Reinhold Niebuhr
“letting go of feeling bad because you’re not letting go enough.” that certainly hit home. so ridiculous, isn’t it? and so true.
Thank you, thank you! I so needed to read those words today. Funny how hard just “letting go” can actually be sometimes. It seems so simple!
Thank you Susannah!
This couldn’t be more timely, Susannah. Thank you for this dose of honest wisdom~!
Letting go of expectations, control and what “should be” and who I “should be” these are the biggies for me! Totally great post!
perfectly stated susannah! i finished it and felt compelled to take a few deep freeing breaths. xo
It is truly wonderful hearing you tell me that – for someone reason I have such a hard listening to myself, but when you say it, and in such a great way, I start to understand too…
xox
The truth of this is that I started to cry – out loud, sobby, snotty crying – as I read your words. Sat in my office and just cried, at all the letting go that needs to happen, realized all of a sudden – a true moment of clarity – how I’ve hated the skin I’m in since I was in the 7th grade. Every day, every day. I eventually got up from my desk and headed back to the photo area, to work that needed to be done, but I took my slobbery weeping with me, and cried it out. Let it go. Tommorow I begin to thank this skin, these bones – a new ritual. A little TLC. Bless you.
You gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous thing.
That’s all I have to say really. :) :)
x
me too, love. getting it huge.
Look deep inside yourself and you will know
how good it feels when you do let go
Letting go and letting be.
Amen sweet sister. xx
i meant to reply…i hope you fly as you step off the ledge and let go
These are the stepping stones to an evolving life, that will only make one stronger. It has taken me so many years, a bit of heart break, and a spot of breast cancer to truly learn to just let it all go. Be your beautiful self, become your best friend. What will be will be, it is what it is.{I say this daily}
Pray for the strength to move on and let go.
Susannah, thank you for another inspirational post!
amen!
Boy did I need to read this! I wrote a comment and I lost it. but it basically said something like this:
My son has his surgery next month….
My ability to handle every day stress has become non existent
It oozes out of me in ways I am not proud of – being mean, sharp toned, and tense.
Need to work on all of the things you wrote about above.
Back to inner work I go….Obviously I’ve been avoiding it.
xoxoxo
*c
sending giant bear hugs to you, D xoxo
thinking of you and little Max, hon! xox
I find the more and more I let go….the more space I create in my heart for joy.
Thank You Susannah…..you kick butt. :)
oh yes. and often in the letting go of something, another even more wonderful thing appears to fill the space.
can’t wait to see you again friend
xxx
“Letting go of feeling bad because you’re not letting go enough.”
I can never hear this enough. So easy yet so hard. Thanks!
I needed to read this.
I really need to try.
Thank you so much. I needed this today a lot!
I could have written that, sometimes you just take the words out of my mouth and say it much better than I could.
I remind myself each day to let go. Even the small things. Like when no car stops at the zebra crossing. Or my husband leaves his coffee cup in the lounge instead of bringing it to the kitchen. I let go. One car will stop and let us cross. And I take the cup into the kitchen myself, because I have to go there anyway. I let go.
The small things are the training ground for the bigger things. I keep telling myself that no one starts training for a marathon by running the entire length on the first day. It’s a process.
Ahhhh.
Like a peaceful balm on a sunburnt soul.
wow. just wow.
I stumbled across your blog from kind over matter…and love it!
This is brilliant…
I understand it, but I don’t know how to actually do it!
Thank you for this! I need to try harder….
i absolutely love that i read this post today. i have linked this post off my site today…i hope that is okay…these are words beautifully spoken. thank you.
gentle reminder, hope and having at it, thanks sisters, needed this now.
I still struggle with this big time! It is the hardest thing for me to do. I can sift it through my brainwaves but the reality is I still cling to the past like I am going to drown. Thanks for the post!
Letting go of the past is my biggest issue. It feels if I let go, I will drown. Thanks for posting this!
Thanks for posting this, Susannah!
I believe that this has to be my biggest issue. I don’t know how to let go of my past. I cling like a drowning rat to things that I need to let float away.
this is just beautiful and exactly what I needed right now !
This is so what I needed to read today. I absolutely loved it. Thank you for sharing it. I really need to work on letting go of certain things in my life…and this passage of beautiful words deeply resonated with me. I love your writing, your photography and your blog! Keep it up. You are an inspiration. xo
I just recently learned this valuable life lesson of letting go. It was a very difficult journey. I had the
exact same thought, that “Life is letting go.” I love
that someone else has had the same thought. =)
So true. Sometimes we hold onto things so tightly that the minute we let go it feels like we are floating in clouds. And always, it’s that knot in the stomach feeling that tells us we’ve been holding on too long…
“let go” has been with me for at least three years now, and just reading your words reminded me that it’s cornerstone somehow. it’s key. thanks!
So true! And beautifully written. It’s so hard to let go of all these things that make you fel bad.. but I’m also learning that there’s no other way if I want to be happy and be myself..just be
Thank you for sharing these thoughts
This is an old post it seems, but today I got home early, and wanted some comfort, so I remembered a song list you shared in one of your latest post that I wanted to listen to, and while looking for it I found this, and many other notes from the heart you so honestly and unselfishly shared with whoever wanted to read…
I am in the verge of tears, I have been for the past hour, but it is not bad, it is actually a good thing for me… I have not been able to actually cry for a really long, too long, time; since my dreams crashed like Icarus and my wings just dissolved in the heat, so thank you, for having the courage, the strength and the passion to share all of this…
Words I am writing now seem too confuse and I do not even know if they express what I wanted to say, they are coming from somewhere inside my head, battling its way past the strong me, the one that says that you can never ever let go of yourself, because if you do, you will crash and never be able to get on your feet again; basically but I wanted to thank you -again because I feel like it- for giving me the courage to let go, a little, may be a lot more tomorrow.
If you allow -or maybe you don’t have to, I just don’t know- I am inspired to make a little wall print with this post words, I hope you don’t mind, but they are so beautiful, so true, and so amazingly coming from someone I will probably never meet and who is standing somewhere on the other end of the earth.
Too long of a comment now, I do not own a blog (but I seem to have the need to write, so may be… =D ), but once again, THANK YOU, or better said, Gracias!
P.S. if you DO mind me doing the printing/art wall from your words, please let me know.
All the best for you.