“We are like children building a sand castle. We embellish it with beautiful shells, bits of driftwood, and pieces of colored glass. The castle is ours, off limits to others. We’re willing to attack if others threaten to hurt it. Yet despite all our attachment, we know that the tide will inevitably come in and sweep the sand castle away. The trick is to enjoy it fully but without clinging, and when the time comes, let it dissolve back into the sea.” – Pema Chodron
Image: “eroded sandcastle” by Steve Hardy via Flickr.
Welcome! I am a lawyer turned freelance writer, essayist, and editor. On staff at Literary Mama and the co-founder and co-editor of the literary journal, The Sunlight Press, my essays and reported work have appeared in The Washington Post, The Lily, Saveur, Civil Eats, Brain, Child, ESPN and elsewhere. I am currently at work on a memoir on grief and culture and how it provides perspective on life’s ordinary graces. I invite you to appreciate the ordinary with me. I hope my daily practice of seeing the magic in the mundane helps you celebrate and find more of these moments in your life too.
Wow, I need that one. It’s so amazing to me to find that balance between letting in and letting go. And just feeling.. healthy with all of it.
I agree. I wish I could let the letting in and letting go feel like a gentle wave, but alas, I am not there yet. Maybe someday.
Rudri, that’s a good one. It reminds me of a scene in the Leslie Marmon Silko novel Ceremony where the Navajo sand painting is completed and then destroyed as part of the ceremony.
I love Silko’s scene and what it describes. I wasn’t aware of that tradition. Gives us something to think about. Thanks, Luanne.