Act, allow; grip, let go: hold, release. Let’s take a closer look at one of the most challenging of many human dilemmas.
Holding a posture is what we are expected to do in yoga schools that prize accomplishment, where striving is a virtue. We may not realize or want to acknowledge that physical, material progression depends upon time and space and ceases eventually. Living includes undoing – we all face decrepitude and loss. Determining what is possible to retain, keep close, even develop and what deliberately to set outside, put away, give away, shapes our thinking and our lives. (And although it can’t be ‘held’, spiritual progression never comes to an end.)
Keeping and staying may be almost impossible, but holding has scores of colourations, many of them kind and positive. How are you holding up, holding out, holding off, holding back, holding forth, holding it together? Holding hands, arms, shoulders, memories, holding court, holding onto the way things used to be, the way we want them to be. Holding values that are important and right and good. Holding valuables, perhaps a photograph, a keepsake, a letter as proof of love or birth or identity, affirming our connection to the past. Cherish a long-ago gift. Treasure a found object. Frame and display a child’s drawing.
Holding implies steadfastness, patience, tolerance, protection. It’s a caress, it’s caring and it’s strength. Hold firm. Keep your hands on that plow. Never give up, never despair. We all need something to hold onto: a dream, a vision, prayer, relationship with the divine, love itself.
The Way It Is
There’s a thread you follow. It goes among
things that change. But it doesn’t change.
People wonder about what you are pursuing.
You have to explain about the thread.
But it is hard for others to see.
While you hold it you can’t get lost.
Tragedies happen; people get hurt
or die; and you suffer and get old.
Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding.
You don’t ever let go of the thread.
- William Stafford
Thanks to Maira Kalman, Women Holding Things, for inspiration.