Tag Archives: fellow man

You have to let go of all you have … in order to gain the world

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Real freedom is having nothing. I was freer when I didn’t have a cent. ~Mike Tyson

I have struggled to write this blog post.  Sometimes, I am overwhelmed by too many choices.  For most of my life I haven’t had to face a lot of choices.  My life has been one of survival.  The choices I faced were almost always binary, i.e. do I keep this job or be unemployed, can I afford to buy this or not.  Binary choices are easy. An abundance of choices is more difficult.

I have worked very hard throughout my life and for the most part, have done a very good job at what I do.  It has gained me some notoriety and opened lots of doors for a successful career.  I also have been a relatively decent human being and that has gained me a fair amount of people who love me and who I love spending time with. I am extremely grateful for both of those things and for all the choices they have given me.

One of the things I have struggled with is how to make a choice between several equally great things where there is no bad choice to eliminate. I struggle with trying to figure out what I really want. Right now, I am struggling with my sabbatical. I have had so many great offers to do incredible work in exotic places. I have choices to have amazing personal experiences like riding bikes, hiking, diving, etc with fascinating people in places I have never dreamed I would get to go in my life.  I have wonderful choices to visit and spend time with people I love in places that are dear to heart.  And I haven’t been able to choose.

So I tried to think about how to combine them so I could do it all, and frankly, it stressed me out. I struggled to make the choice which will make everyone happy and meet everyone’s needs.  But what I really needed to be asking myself is “what do I want to do?”. Such a simple, yet complex question.

In writing out this blog post, what I realized is that it is about letting go. I have already let go of my physical stuff. Now I need to let go of people’s expectations for me.  I need to let go of the idea of disappointing people.  I need to let go of my own ideas of failure and success.  I need to let go of fear of the unknown.  I need to let go of all of those things so that my hands are empty and my heart is open.  Only then will I be ready to reach for whatever is to be my destiny.

I have decided this week to accept an offer to teach in Ethiopia for the next year.  There will be some side trips to a few other countries for vacation, other work and to visit with my beautiful granddaughters, but the majority of my sabbatical will be spent in Ethiopia.  It is a chance to do work that is some of the most innovative and has a greater potential for impact on humanity, on my career, and on me personally than anything I have done thus far.

As I was writing out that line, I realized…it is what I want to do.

For these things, we are thankful…

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Tomorrow morning will mark exactly a week since I packed my remaining possessions in my car and turned over the keys to my apartment. In that week, I have realized that I kept too much stuff. I drive a small SUV and had to put the seats down flat to fit everything in the back. Yesterday, I cut that amount in half. I think tomorrow, I might cut it in half again.

It is amazing how little we really need. But what was more shocking for me to realize was that all those things I held onto because “I might need them someday” were not only cluttering up my life, they were affecting my ability to let go of the past and move on. Even more profoundly revealing was the idea that many of those items could be used by someone who actually DOES need them right now, not just some hypothetical day in the future. And that person will have to go buy that same item. So now, I have an item that I am not using and there is another identical item that had to be produced, an item that used up more of the planet’s resources and another person’s financial resources to purchase it. All the while, the item sat in my home, unused, unneeded and taking up space. If we really want to save the planet and help our fellow man, we have to start by not hoarding stuff.

I also realized how easy it is, with all that stuff, to forget to give thanks for the important things. And I am not talking about people, they obviously are the most important parts of our lives, I am talking about being thankful for “things”. To figure out what is important, you have strip everything away and then add it back it to see the value it added to your life. For example, go two days without brushing your teeth and you will absolutely appreciate the value of your toothbrush.

When we allow our lives to be taken down to the bare essentials we find out what those essentials are. Today, I am thankful for being able to brush my teeth with clean water from a faucet, for freshly laundered underwear, and for electricity. I have a feeling that before my sabbatical is over, I will find that those things are luxuries.