Three Black Crows

Photo from www.davidfrisk.com

Driving along the winding, tree-lined country road to my morning appointment hardly reflected the peaceful scenery that surrounded me. Pieces of yesterday’s phone conversation I had had with someone I considered a friend punctured my heart and churned my stomach.
Her undeserved insults left me wondering if I’d ever trust her again.

Thoughts of what I should have said…could have said but refrained…
zig-zagged across my mind as my car came upon three huge crows in the road picking at brunch. “Move!” my mind yelled, as I continued barreling up the road. They always do, don’t they? Eventually? Right at the last second? The answer to that is no. In this instance, two flew off while the other slammed into the grill of my car. It sounded as if I’d hit a Chihuahua. Looking in my rearview mirror I saw it flapping on the side of the road and asked out loud as if it could hear or understand me, “Why didn’t you let go? Couldn’t you have learned to LET GO!”

Yeah. Let go. Holding on to some things can be deadly.
The lesson hit me as hard as I’d hit the bird.

There are so many things we hang on to in life that can tear us up from the inside out… like regret, endless “what ifs”, the desire for our younger self, the desire for our past life which we perceive as far better than today’s, bitterness, painful memories, a negative self-image, etc... I’m sure you could add to this list.  But what happens when we hold on and refuse to let go? With whitened knuckles our focus becomes narrow and we fail to appreciate today. We love less. We serve less. We grow less. So what can we do? The antidote is to follow the surviving birds’ example and let go. The temptation is to cling, but the choice is there and ours to make. 

I parked my car along the downtown street and headed to my appointment. The storefronts were quaint and inviting with their fall décor. Several shops before I reached my destination I noticed a large, lone, black feather on the sidewalk. It felt like a sign, as if God was reminding me, “The lesson to let go wasn’t a nice idea to simply share with someone else. I intended it for you.”

So in that moment I chose to let go of the hurtful feelings and thoughts that stemmed from that conversation and ended up having one amazing day.  So as for tomorrow? Wash. Rinse. Repeat.  Hopefully minus the dead bird.

What do you need to let go of?

“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
~ Philippians 3:12-14