Letting Go

January 2015

Marlie Avant:

Reflecting upon the past year, I find the major theme threading itself throughout 2014 was “letting go.” It was not an easy year but a necessary one. Sometimes turbulent, the currents of life were rearranging themselves within and without. I had no choice but to surrender to what I trusted was part of the creative process of change. And indeed everything was changing.

I was walking in Moss Landing one day and past by a window with lettering on it which read: “ Broken by a storm, freed from my roots, amongst the whales and waves, my journey continues, polished by sand, whitened by the sun, I flow toward destiny where new adventures await anxiously.”

One month later, my husband and I and our little dog were traveling across country to our new home. Trusting nature to fill any void, I nurtured a heart aching from too many goodbyes but excited at the prospects of “anxiously awaiting adventures.

Our new home is in Florida. Our Lakeside cottage is named The Egret, a bird which has always held a special meaning for my husband and me. Egrets are all around us here, a-wing with us with their grace and beauty. I looked up the totem medicine of the Egret and it feels most fitting at this time.” The Heron/Egret totem teaches balance, the ability to progress and evolve—to walk into deeper waters without fear, to stand on one’s own two feet and to learn self reliance.”

I am treasuring this time of reflection, taking long walks alongside lake and marsh. I have decorated our cottage with soft colors drawing inspiration from what nature never fails to gift me. These are gentle days. My edges have indeed softened. After a year of letting go, 2015 seems to be sending me a quiet message to “simply be and receive.” My heart is full of gratitude. We so often fear change and yet, it is a gift offering us the opportunity to evolve, to move more deeply into the very waters which will nourish our souls.