Jen’s Gems: Let It Be

German Professor Wilhelm Schmid created the word “Gelassenheit,” which is derived from “lassen,” the German word for letting something happen and also from letting it be.

We all face certain situations or times in our life that we can become resentful about, but what if we chose to accept them, rather than resent them? The problem for us nowadays is we’ve been encouraged to think – if I don’t like it, I don’t accept it. And then we fight the situation. Yet how often does all that time, effort and energy in fighting come to no avail, because the situation doesn’t change? If we always adopt the position of non-acceptance, we never find a way to handle what we’re living through, because we refuse to. All our energy is focused on eliminating the situation. When you accept the situation, you begin to live through it and come out the other side. Pema Chödrön is an American Buddhist nun and wrote, “So even if the hot loneliness is there, and for 1.6 seconds we sit with that restlessness when yesterday we couldn’t sit for even one, that’s the journey of the warrior.” What Chödrön is saying is – when we stop fighting and let things be, every day we get better and better at managing the situation.

Encouraging Reflection

• Have you found yourself in a difficult situation lately?
• What was your instant reaction?
• If you fought against the situation, what do you think would have happened if you hadn’t done so?
• What would happen if instead of trying to solve the issue, you just left things be?

Be encouraged!