Letting Go

Hands Facing Upwards in a Time of Changing Climate

What happens when I let go?

Sometimes people tell me, “You’ve just got to let it go.” Easier said than done! Letting go is indeed one of the vital tasks of life so we do not get weighed down and incapable of living. Letting go can come as forgiveness, or as simple self-care, or as a practice of recognizing limits and choosing possibilities within those limits.

For me, letting go can be difficult in a time when so much seems momentous and worrisome. Just to pick one topic - I am constantly thinking about the changing climate. I notice the ongoing differences in weather where I am. I hear about expanding drought in parts of the US. The news is filled with the extreme heat in Europe. The changing climate is a big issue that matters to me.

Katherine Hayhoe is a climate scientist who shares that one of the most important ways we can have an impact is to talk about changes we notice in the climate. Studies show that a large majority of people are concerned about the environmental effects, but it seems overwhelming and isolating. Simply talking together about the climate effects is one way of building power together, and moving beyond isolation.

Hayhoe shared what she thought was an example of peak irony. In the UK this week, a Climate Resilience event had to be cancelled…due to extreme heat!

There is such great urgency to act personally and locally, as well as to organize for moving our governmental agencies and corporations to action now. In this time of urgency, why would I think about the importance of letting go? Isn’t that the opposite of what we need?

For years when I heard about “letting go,” I visualized it like dropping a ball from my hand face-down so that it would fall and bounce away. That is the image at the top of this post. Letting go seemed like a matter of forgetting about it, denying it, or ignoring it. That is not what we need.

When someone suggested reframing this, it was an “aha” moment for me. They suggested a practice of turning my wrist so that my hand was upright instead.

What happens now when I let go?

When I “let go” with my palm facing upward, the ball does not roll away. It is not forgotten or ignored. The ball is still there in the palm of my hand.

I am just not clutching so tightly. There is a different freedom in that.

In other words, my concern has not vanished. I simply have a different perspective so I can look at it more fully. I can breathe, and even look at the concern together with others who may notice textures and characteristics I had missed in my anxious clutching. Opening my hand upwards means more freedom and possibility.

Opening my hand, palm upwards, seems to have another effect. It raises my eyes and opens my heart a little, too. In a time when anxiety runs deep, it offers a way to look outward beyond my clutching. Stress compresses my perspective; letting go helps open my ability to see more openly.

With regard to climate change, I can talk about what I have noticed personally - warmer nights, fewer birds, more irregular rainfall patterns. I can recall what kind of insects or birds were around ten years ago as compared to now. That invites others to share what they have noticed too. It is not clutching to certainty or to just one, stressful perspective. It is holding palm up a little more openly.

So I can talk about the pervasive air pollution of the 1970s in American cities (remember those photos?), and how people organized to make societal changes. Rivers that used to catch fire from all the chemicals dumped in them. Rachel Carson’s book, Silent Spring, helped people to talk about what was changing in ways they could notice. We need that now, too.

And that allowed people to imagine what was possible. To imagine taking diffrent actions. Letting go in this way can help us to be present, creatively making connections that our narrowed focus had missed before.

So these days I still practice letting go. Not forgetting about the changing climate or the huge needs facing us, but holding the ball in such a way that I can act with others. I find hope there - acting with others as we talk about real opportunities.

Letting go means I can enjoy this morning’s walk with our dogs, listening to nuthatches and chickadees and seeing green growth with thankfulness. It means I can recognize the precarious nature of it all. And with resolve I can act so others may enjoy these gifts.

My upward-facing palms help me to receive as well as to offer myself. Our world needs us to keep practicing together. I keep learning how letting go in this way frees me for today. Thanks for reading.