Surrender is the skill to learn in the 21st century
Surrender Dorothy!
The Wicked Witch of the West blazed these words across the sky in angry black smoke. Oh no, surely surrender meant the end for poor Dorothy! Could she escape this one? Could she still win? Would anyone come to rescue her? Or would she come to a tragic end at the hands of the wickedest woman alive?
In our Western culture, Surrender has often been synonymous with Losing. As in, poor you, you gave in, you gave up, you great big Loser. Wars are created because the parties involved couldn’t let go, forgive, give in, or move on from the past.
The act of Surrender is never seen as winning, in this way of looking at things.
And we all know that if you're not the Winner, you're the Loser. Winner takes all, in this mindset. You must win at all costs. Non-resistance is seen as weakness, along with gentleness and pacifism. The concepts of honor and saving face rule over all. People are more afraid of losing than they are of dying horribly and violently.
Rather than being powerful tools we all need to learn how to use daily more effectively, compromise and cooperation are seen in a negative light as 'giving up and being weak'.
There is a whole lot of control-freakery going on.
Humans like to believe that they control the whole show, but recent events have reminded us how very little control we actually have. A sense of humor is necessary - hopefully the current events have you laughing from time to time. Talk about having to let go of every old way of doing business. I don't see this as a bad thing, not in the least. We are evolving, and we need new ways of doing business, in every sense of the word.
In the spirit of spiritual transformation, I hereby nominate “Surrender” as the word of the 21st Century.
Much more than a word, the concept of Surrender is what we are working on right now. A spiritual surrender includes learning how to trust, to have faith in yourself and your reason for being here. Surrender means you get to release what had its negative hold on you. Surrender doesn't mean you give up or stop taking action or trying, it means you work from your spirit instead of trying to control every last outcome.
If you are having a difficult time, you may be fighting rather than surrendering. You won’t lose by letting go, but you might by trying to hold onto what must be released right now. Like a good yard sale, Everything Must Go!
Give it away, release its hold on you, put it down for a while. Lighten your load. A psychic told me years ago, ‘you’re trying to run the 3 minute mile and you keep picking up rocks along the way’. I understood him immediately, laughed out loud, let some of the rocks fall by the wayside. I was the one who chose to pick up those rocks, and only I could surrender their hold on me.
Being able to let go is the skill of the 21st century, the skill to develop.
It’s harder to learn this one than it is to learn how to walk, talk, read and write. We humans are hardwired to hold onto things. We learn this from each other.
We also teach each other. If you decide to practice surrender, forgiveness, release, and letting go, others can learn these skills from you. What a gift you bring them by doing so! By letting go, we become stronger as community, and community is certainly what we need moving forward in this new era.
©Kris Cahill
Image @Unsplash
