~NASA site Blue Marble Earth montage Image created by the VIIRS instrument on board the new (Oct 2011) Suomi satellite. 30 January 2012

"Man must rise above the Earth -- to the top of the atmosphere and beyond -- for only thus will he fully understand the world in which he lives." ~Socrates
(well, maybe not fully ...)

Amazing!  ... Letting it go can dramatically enrich my current situation.  It gives me an opportunity to "bloom where I am planted" so to speak.  I like who I have become during my lifetime and I do not have to see a shadow ... where ... the light shines ... . Unforseeable events bent me away from that light.  I need that light to grow ... I need that light to thrive.

A note to myself back several months ago ... Hmmm. The realization came as a gift. I wrote this gift, of letting go, would have been more then even my most audacious self would have asked for or dreamed possible if  I knew how to approach God with a prayer about this issue.  I believe I used the word miracle earlier ... miracle is the right word. Those words about blooming and letting go ... I remembered as I sat quietly in that chair.

The perfect chair in a room with a view ... lol ... I'm still thinking a bit about this. The chair took me by surprise.

The airport was socked in. I had a wonderful seat from which to see "weather 101" in a detached, yet fully engaged, way. It wasn't a perfect view. A tiny piece of it was about how visibility is limited. A friend shared a wonderful picture of the view from the departure end in very low conditions. Taxiing to that spot must have been tricky, tedious, and the full power roll in to the unknown ... Yeah the runway is supposed to be clear, surely it is, but penetrating quarter mile visibility full throttle must exact a visceral penalty. I watched the guys at ATL "let it go". And then, one of my very favorite things happened ... a ride through the bumps, where your skin "feels" the weirdness of ions seeking reunion, and suddenly the bad stuff is just gone ... behind you ... and what's ahead and all around is something amazing, it is a light that feels so good you could see it with your eyes closed. The light above it all is charged, and it shimmers golden and silver and incandescent. It is wonder.

Just a few days ago I wrote about fog, the veil of fog obscuring, and then being able to see what was already there. Let it go.

So ... Those almost year old words to help me understand, to help me process and then remember ... I did let go of something and the space it took up opened up to embrace something better.

It was kind of miraculous it seemed and transitioned me to think about those miracles expressed in the Bible. I wondered, why did those particular miracles merit a ride through time ... Why do I get to "see" the miracle healing of the leper, or Bartimeaus, or the wine at the wedding, or ... the raising of Lazarus ... any of those, all of them ... . And I'm still working my way through those Bible verses and what they may mean still.

I don't like the expression bloom where you are planted ... and it is quite difficult for me to let go of things, because I am very careful about what I hold close in the first place ... So, I've been thinking about that, not exactly only in the way of letting go of specific things, like a house, or a desire, or a ... well, anything. More like how it feels to a pilot ... Waking up to not good weather knowing that a careful preflight is gonna get you soggy ... then, you're gonna strap in and carefully move towards who really knows what ... and you forget til you see it again how totally good it is on top ... that light makes all the yuck disappear.

It's very ironic that imagining several months ago how cherished one might feel relaxing in a chair with a lovely view helped me to a time and place to receive that private miracle. I let go. Then ... Actually sitting in the chair at the hotel on Saturday I remember the basic idea of my "note to self" briefed above, and I went looking for the words. Bloom where you're planted sneaks up on me there.

I've been planning on blooming at the beach for quite some time now. The idea of that has been my comfort through the bumps and the weirdness. From where I sit, typing, I see physical expressions of preparation to do exactly that. Sitting all day in a chair with only my thoughts for company gave me time to start soaking in the idea of how rewarding it can be to embrace the unknown. As I think about the miracles in the Bible I see a state of change ... in most cases, the participants gave up something, let go of something, even if it was just an attitude, or perspective/bias. That's the part of the miracle(s) that we didn't hear about in Sunday School ... I heard about a man, lame from birth, healed he was able to walk ... and the story is told like that's it, now he can walk. But just imagine how walking changed his life. Where did the miracle take him, and what was left behind?

Now, it looks like we might be here for a while yet. And that's okay. I told my husband I think I'm going to need more little trips to the beach, but ... I can do this. As a life thing I'm getting a lot more comfortable with throttling up ... in to and through ... I feel really safe trusting God. He's got this. I'm interested to see what happens next.