Letting Go

I had this comment from a reader, recently, and the question has been with me ever since, "Was it hard to learn to let go? To just believe that the right things would happen? I struggle with this and just wonder if you ever do."

While I know it in my bones, and feel it in my heart, and have proof all around me, yes, I still struggle to let go and believe the right things will happen. 

I'm not sure what that's all about. Probably a messy combination of being human, needing to feel in control, habit, mistaken belief that if I'm not worrying, I'm not "doing" anything, and the influence of outside voices and forces.

To spend any significant amount of time dwelling on the past, or projecting fear into the future, can whip me up into a right proper frenzy, instantly. 

I think more needs to be made about the word "right," too. Do I believe the "right" things will happen? Do things have to go my way to be right? When things aren't going "right," it's very easy to fall into the trap of generalizing, globalizing, panicking and believing everything is a catastrophe. Sometimes, perhaps often, the "right" thing comes into our life wearing a clever disguise.

Wil starts his new job today. He's been out of high school for three months now, having pretty much the time of his life, doing only what he wants to do and very little of what he doesn't. He's been happy, and the temptation is to keep it that way, arranging life carefully for him, so that he only has to do the things he enjoys and finds easy. We've been working to create a volunteer job for him where he will spend most of his time doing the things he prefers, but at least part of every day he will do something that challenges him, something he doesn't necessarily like and doesn't find easy. He will have a job coach, he will have supervision, he will have support, he will have checks and balances to make sure it's all going well, but there are many aspects of his new job that I am simply not in control of.

It's very hard to let any adult child go out into the world and face the challenges you know they will face. It is particularly hard to let a special needs adult move into the world, even with a lot of support, and enter the work world. But it's time. It's necessary. It's the next step towards greater independence. It's the next step towards greater self-actualization. It's the next step towards letting go.