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Let Go and Let God

Today was a fun day in Hawaii and while I’d love to chronicle all our adventures, one is more important to note than all others. It occurred at Waikiki Beach. Page lost her goggles when a large wave pummeled her. She and her sisters search around the surf to no avail. They were gone. She came up on the beach, where I was enjoying a good book, and vented her frustrations. I told her I was sorry that happened and assured her that it wasn’t a big deal and we could rent some other ones or buy her some new ones. She, however, could not be consoled as she was positive her day, and in fact her entire trip, were now ruined.

I exercised my Buddha wisdom and reminded her of pain and suffering. I told her there wasn’t anything she could now do to bring her goggles back as the Sea Gods had claimed them and only they could give them back if they wanted and it would be in their own due time if they felt so inclined. Rather than be upset that her siblings were no longer interested in searching for the missing goggles, she could look for them by herself, or just let it go and use mine. I acknowledged that the pain of her loss was real, but there was no need to add suffering to the pain by pining unnecessarily over her loss.

She wasn’t impressed, and after kicking some sand, and some boogie boards, she finally stormed off. I was proud with how well I handled the situation. I felt so wise for I knew of the truthfulness of the advice I imparted. I continued reading and hoped that Page would allow the truths to sink in and decide to leave her suffering behind. 20 minutes later Page had her awakening and decided to let it go and get back to playing.

It was about 90 minutes later that Page came running up the beach waving her “prodigal” goggles. That which had been lost was now found! Gwen saw them surface as they were playing in the surf and they were both beyond excited--as was I!

I had to photo document the moment because it was a huge miracle and a powerful teaching moment. I had told Page during my Buddha lecture that she should just surrender to the Universe and everything would work out. Fretting and crying and being frustrated wasn’t going to change one darn thing—letting go and letting God always yields the greatest dividends. You gain peace and some days, like today, you get your goggles back.

So don’t add suffering to pain. Let go and Let God, universe, or spirit, do its thing. It has been doing it forever so it’s pretty darn good at it.

And here are the Hawaii highlights for the day:

Sunday service with the Samoan branch that ended up not being a Samoan branch
Waikiki Beach and Banyan Trees
Sampling some of Hawaii’s finest: Pineapple, apple bananas, Leonard’s donuts
Grocery shopping—bought very little for very much  

Already looking forward to tomorrow!






Reading a dang good book on the beach

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