Where is the balance between tenacity and surrender?

post by guest thinker: BROOKE MORGAN

In this, my 37^th year, I am learning to let go. Though lessons tend to come and go and evolve as the seasons, this one has been hanging around for a good while now. In business, in my marriage, with our toddler, in my classroom, with my gray hair and crow’s feet – I am continually challenged by the notion of striving less and being more. More present, more engaged, more gracious, more imperfect, and less preoccupied with going and doing and rushing impatiently to the next thing on my to do list. I am finding that whenever I hold things or people too tightly in my own grasp, I am inevitably thrown into a vicious cycle of worry, stress, and anxiety. The illusion of control holds me hostage and keeps me from experiencing this glorious life as I know it.

But what really can we control anyway? The movement of the sun? Certainly not. The approval of friends and loved ones? Uh uh. The success of our business, our children, our health? I’m afraid not. So what is it all for? Why do I spend so much time striving, when the fruits of the Divine are gifts, not to be harnessed, but to be spontaneous, wild and free? A tough lesson indeed for someone who’s always believed that if you dream it, you can in fact DO it. And while there is merit in hard work and determination, perhaps there is equally so in turning down the noise of busyness and letting life simply happen as it will.

So I ask you to ponder with me…Where is the balance between tenacity and surrender? Between wanting to control and needing to let go? In other words, how do we find flow without getting pulled below the current?

About our guest: Brooke Morgan is an artist, educator, and visionary living in Nashville, TN. She is the founder of Nomad Collective, a curation of soulful pieces from around the globe with a business model that honors relationship, equity, and well-being.