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Julianne Gilchrist

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Julianne Gilchrist

  • Home
  • About Me
  • Online Retreats
    • Available Retreats
    • Retreat Participants: Busy Moms
  • Blog: Ponderings
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Blog: Ponderings

Out With The Old: The Beauty of Letting Go

September 13, 2018 Julianne Gilchrist
Photo by  Aaron Burden  on  Unsplash

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

My kids don’t deal well with change.

Five years ago around this time roofers showed up early every morning to pound nails into shingles above our heads. We had only recently welcomed our youngest into the world, and we were still very much adjusting to having a newborn. The new roof was just one more piece in an already loud and busy household. I didn’t think much of it; I just wanted it to be finished. My oldest, who was barely four at the time, was devastated that we were getting a new roof. “But I love the old roof,” she would wail. Of course, the roof might have been the easiest thing for her to name. She couldn’t quite articulate that adding a new baby felt like everything that once seemed stable now seemed wobbly.

There have been other resistances—dare I say, threats of mutiny—when we have talked change in our house. We have this couch. Have I mentioned it before? It’s the worst. Okay, so, it’s not the absolute worst—as far as we know, it’s not infested with bed bugs and you’re not likely to catch any diseases from it. But, really? It’s pretty close to the worst. We used to flip the cushions over when company was coming, so that they would have the advantage of sitting on the clean side. Now we don’t even bother anymore because there is NO CLEAN SIDE. This couch is stained, ripped, and sagging. I hate it. But whenever I mention how I would love to replace it, my kids protest as if I am suggesting we trade in one of their siblings. (We have now made a deal that if we still have the couch when one of them is ready to move out, that child can take the couch with them. They think I am offering them the world).

What my kids are missing is this: when we hold tightly to things, our hands are too full to accept any new gifts.

If I’m honest, I’m not that different from my kids. Oh, don’t get me wrong—I would trade that couch in a heartbeat—but there are other changes that feel too overwhelming to even consider.

Last spring was a season of endings for me, and the endings filled me with panic. I couldn’t see beyond the endings to any possible beginnings.

Sometimes we don’t get to see what might come next until we are willing to let go of what is.

Sometimes we have to say “no” to things in our life in order to say “yes” to possibilities and new growth.

Sometimes before new things in our lives can have space to germinate, to push through the soil and grow, some of the old things might have to be ploughed up, pulled out.

Are there things in your life that you are being invited (called?) to let go of so that there is room for something new to grow?

Sometimes nothing new grows in that ground for ages, and we begin to wonder if anything will ever grow there again.

How might we tend the soil while we wait for something new to grow?

Autumn lavishes us with colour, but in that beauty is a letting go, a dying of what once was. Those leaves have to fall in order for new life to grow in the spring. Autumn is a season of change: as mornings and evenings grow cooler, school buses begin rattling down the roads once again, and we awaken to new routines, new beginnings.

What new beginnings do you want to embrace this fall?

Tags Change, Fall, Letting Go
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About Me...

I'm an ordained pastor, but right now I spend my days chasing my three kids, drinking coffee, and trying to remember where I hid my chocolate stash.  In my (rare) free moments, I write, take pictures, and dream of places that don't involve snow.  Read more..

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On Faith and Daily Life:

Is God Asleep?

Meet Me In the Mess

Dirty Socks and Holy Spaces

Play Ground Forgiveness

Of Fear and Thanks

A Begrudger of Gifts

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Can We Admit We Don't Have This Parenting Thing Figured Out?

To My Kids At The End of a Hard Day

For the Parents. Because This Gig is Hard.

Mother's Day

Of Long Days

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Have We Stopped Dreaming?

Send Someone Else: When God's Call Feels Too Big

Send Someone Else: When God's Call Feels Too Small

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Welcoming the Stranger

Three Things I Wish Would Make Us Angrier Than Target's Toy Display

Lament.  With Paris. And Beirut. And...

A Lament For Human Trafficking.  

On Books and Stories:

Tell Me A  Story...

When Our Storytellers Die (Thoughts on Stuart McLean)

The Books That Won't Leave Us

Ten Children's Books We Love

Just For Fun:

I Fed My Family Mouse Poop For Supper

On Advent and Lent

God In Our Waiting

Risky Prayers

Light in the Darkness

Be Out of Control

Mary's Song

Peace

The Night Before

Trudging Through Holy Week

Rotten Eggs and Other Easter Stories

 

 

 

 

 

 

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