At our Inner Garden Creative Retreats, one of the concepts we teach is letting go.

I taught in college classrooms for fourteen years. I would joke that as a teacher I learned more than when I would sit in a student desk (and I sat in college classrooms for thirteen years).

It’s no joke. You learn more teaching than studenting.

And now, I’m teaching letting go, and the universe dropped the most challenging letting-go lesson of my life in my lap.

I do a lot of work around receiving lessons, remembering they are mine —even when so-and-so should learn this lesson! —, around truly metabolizing the lessons through writing, acts, and prayer.

Let it go. Not just some of it or most of it. All of it, every teeny tiny bit that you’re trying to control that is not yours: just let it go.

What am I (re)learning as I metabolize this lesson?

• It’s hard.
• It’s scary
• It requires faith.
• It’s ongoing.

I’ll facilitate another retreat in a couple of weeks. I’ll be better at teaching the letting go lesson this time because I owned the lesson when it fell in my lap. I metabolized it through words and practice.

Correction: I am metabolizing it through words and practice. It’s an ongoing process.

One reason many teachers are special is the good ones are learners first and spend a whole career owning and practicing the lessons they teach. I’m grateful to take on a teaching role again, decades after stepping away from the classroom. I’m learning so much.

©Pennie Nichols. All Rights Reserved. 2023

BTW: If you’re in the area when I’m mowing and notice I’m screaming or shouting as I make my way through the yard: I’m OK. I’m just letting go of a few things. There are many ways to metabolize the hard lessons.