Clinging on for dear life

‘For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven…’

(Ecclesiastes 3:1)

I looked out my kitchen window yesterday and noticed an apple or two still on my tree.

It looked like they were just clinging on for dear life, just hanging on by a single twig.

Anyone else feel a bit like that these days? Sometimes I feel like I’m holding on by the skin of my fingertips to those ‘summer’ days long past.

🍎 The days where hugs weren’t a memory and crowds weren’t a hazard.

🍏 The days of dinner parties and cosy movie nights with friends.

🍎 The days of indoor play dates and real life music concerts.

🍏 The days when you could hold someone who was grieving and visit someone who was sick.

When I was a kid one of the rides I hated most was ‘the Waltzer.’ We used to go to the fairground at Ballywalter when I was staying at my granny’s caravan, and my cousins would persuade me to go on that ride.

As the button was pressed and our car began to spin freely while rotating around a centre point, I still remember that dizzy feeling of clinging on for dear life, closing my eyes, stomach churning, and willing it to be over.

The thing is, looking back now, wanting to feel safe and secure robbed me of the enjoyment of that ride, every time! I should have just joined in with my cousins’ laughter and embraced it for what it was.

You see, trying to cling on to the past can cost us dearly.

If that little apple on my tree would just let go and drop gently to the ground, it would release nutrients to the ground to prepare the tree for its next bumper crop.

But if it stays attached to the branch too long, it could attract bacterial, fungal, and viral diseases that might ultimately kill my whole tree.

It can be a bit like that for us, too.

I wonder, can we gently release that friendship that the other person has ended long ago – before it becomes detrimental to our souls?

Can we release the hurt someone’s words caused us – before it begins to taste bitter?

Might we let go of the ‘old’ imperfect normal and embrace a new one, however different it might be from what we imagined? Can we do this before nostalgia threatens to steal our joy in the present altogether?

If we keep clinging on to what we can’t get back, we will find only decay and stagnation.

But if we allow ourselves to free fall into the unknown, we could fall into new ways of nourishing and enriching others. We might even discover that our influence spreads as we allow our lives to become fruitful in a different way.

What will you choose?

H xx