{"id":5532,"date":"2017-09-29T12:00:41","date_gmt":"2017-09-29T16:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/?p=5532"},"modified":"2017-09-19T11:06:13","modified_gmt":"2017-09-19T15:06:13","slug":"choose-enter-unending-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2017\/09\/choose-enter-unending-story.html","title":{"rendered":"Choose to Enter into the Unending Story"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Do we not each go through what we can call the personal \u201cseasons of life\u201d during our lifetime on earth? We have all known, according to our years and experiences, the sweet springtime of youth, the deep summer of fulfillment, the bittersweet fall of letting others do for us what we can no longer do, and the chill of winter? Coming to the close of one\u2019s life is itself but a passing season in an unseen greater one. Do try to see the timeless beauty in all of this change, and you will.<\/p>\n<p>Is any one of us less than a rose, or the single raindrop that \u2013 in falling to feed and refresh the flowers \u2013 makes it possible for them to open and reveal their rainbow of colors and fragrance for us? The answer should be evident.<\/p>\n<p>We are more than the rose, greater than the solar radiance that stirs her essence to bloom. For neither rose nor sun\u2019s radiance is conscious of the great story they serve as they let go and give themselves up to life.<\/p>\n<p>In truth, we human beings are created unique among all things that take life and then give it back on the stage of life, for we are made to witness this eternal story&#8230; and more.<\/p>\n<p>We are not made to have only a relative role in this Great story, to be \u2013 as are all other creatures \u2013 just a minor, passing actor upon its stage. No, the promise of our potential far outweighs even our ability to imagine it, for we have been created to consciously participate in its timeless telling.<\/p>\n<p>When Abraham Lincoln, the great American president, looked at his country so torn apart by the conflict of racial hatred \u2013 born of individuals clinging to ways of life that sorely compromised the soul\u2019s longing for an inclusive love \u2013 he said of this world of troubles: \u201cThis too shall pass.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Of what world was he referring to in that moment? Did he speak of a nation at war within and upon itself, that it would pass? Or did he address the state of his weary heart, so heavy with despair over the condition of man, so filled with doubt as to the course he must choose to help change the consciousness of the United States?<\/p>\n<p>Clearly he was referring to all of these conditions, and more. He was saying that these trials, along with their attending troubles, will pass. But how could he know this truth when darkness had spread itself out both before and within him at once?<\/p>\n<p>Lincoln knew, as can we in our battles with unwanted moments, that the events he faced \u2013 as awesome as they were \u2013 represented only a single page in a far larger story. His eyes could see the truth behind what the world remains blind to: this unending and ever-unfolding Life in which we dwell requires the passage of all the pages that have gone before it.<\/p>\n<p>Letting go, at its heart, is an act of agreement with Life. It is an accord on our part with what the present moment tells us about ourselves as it unfolds before us, asking of us what it does. And what is it that Life is asking of us moment to moment? It\u2019s simple, really:<\/p>\n<p>Life is asking each of us: will you be a witness to my Story? Will you let go of your short-lived moment in the sun of passing circumstances \u2013 in order to realize that just behind all such shadows dwells a Life whose Light never fades?<\/p>\n<p>Will you choose in favor of entering into a Life whose story never ends, and in which fear and failure simply do not exist?<\/p>\n<p>And what must we choose so that we can participate in this Greater Story?<\/p>\n<p>We must choose to let go.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Do we not each go through what we can call the personal \u201cseasons of life\u201d during our lifetime on earth? We have all known, according to our years and experiences, the sweet springtime of youth, the deep summer of fulfillment, the bittersweet fall of letting others do for us what we can no longer do,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":232,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[672,146],"tags":[1937,2869,2875,44,1080,1549,2876],"class_list":["post-5532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-changetransformation","category-death-dying","tag-fear-of-death","tag-fear-of-dying","tag-greater-story","tag-letting-go-2","tag-purpose-of-life","tag-seasons-of-life","tag-this-too-shall-pass"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Choose to Enter into the Unending Story - Letting Go with Guy Finley<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2017\/09\/choose-enter-unending-story.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Choose to Enter into the Unending Story - Letting Go with Guy Finley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Do we not each go through what we can call the personal \u201cseasons of life\u201d during our lifetime on earth? We have all known, according to our years and experiences, the sweet springtime of youth, the deep summer of fulfillment, the bittersweet fall of letting others do for us what we can no longer do,&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2017\/09\/choose-enter-unending-story.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Letting Go with Guy Finley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Guy-Finley-260924340633\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-09-29T16:00:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-09-19T15:06:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Guy Finley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@guy_finley\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Choose to Enter into the Unending Story - Letting Go with Guy Finley","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2017\/09\/choose-enter-unending-story.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Choose to Enter into the Unending Story - Letting Go with Guy Finley","og_description":"Do we not each go through what we can call the personal \u201cseasons of life\u201d during our lifetime on earth? We have all known, according to our years and experiences, the sweet springtime of youth, the deep summer of fulfillment, the bittersweet fall of letting others do for us what we can no longer do,&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2017\/09\/choose-enter-unending-story.html","og_site_name":"Letting Go with Guy Finley","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Guy-Finley-260924340633\/","article_published_time":"2017-09-29T16:00:41+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-09-19T15:06:13+00:00","author":"Guy Finley","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@guy_finley","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2017\/09\/choose-enter-unending-story.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2017\/09\/choose-enter-unending-story.html","name":"Choose to Enter into the Unending Story - Letting Go with Guy Finley","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-09-29T16:00:41+00:00","dateModified":"2017-09-19T15:06:13+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/#\/schema\/person\/1e80afed42f91bae3eb4ca59666c1d16"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2017\/09\/choose-enter-unending-story.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2017\/09\/choose-enter-unending-story.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2017\/09\/choose-enter-unending-story.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Choose to Enter into the Unending Story"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/","name":"Letting Go with Guy Finley","description":"Holistic, Mental Health and Emotional Wellness","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/#\/schema\/person\/1e80afed42f91bae3eb4ca59666c1d16","name":"Guy Finley","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/308\/3082f4cd4990377da62358c5c69fd4e1x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/308\/3082f4cd4990377da62358c5c69fd4e1x96.jpg","caption":"Guy Finley"},"description":"Bestselling \"Letting Go\" author Guy Finley's encouraging and accessible message is one of the true bright lights in our world today. His ideas cut straight to the heart of our most important personal and social issues - relationships, success, addiction, stress, peace, happiness, freedom - and lead the way to a higher life. Finley is the Founder and Director of Life of Learning Foundation, a nonprofit Center for Spiritual Discovery. He is the acclaimed author of \"The Secret of Letting Go\" and more than 45 other books and audio programs that have sold over two million copies in 26 languages worldwide. His work is widely endorsed by doctors, business professionals, celebrities, and religious leaders of all denominations. Through Life of Learning Foundation, Guy has presented over 5,000 unique self-realization seminars to thousands of grateful students throughout North America and Europe over the past 20 years and has been a guest on over 700 television and radio shows, including national appearances on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and NPR. The Foundation's popular Key Lesson e-mails featuring inspirational quotes by Guy are read each week by a hundred thousand subscribers in 142 countries. Guy speaks four times each week on inner-life principles at Life of Learning Foundation's home in Merlin, Oregon. These meetings are ongoing and open to the public. For more information about Life of Learning Foundation, Guy Finley, and their life-changing messages, visit guyfinley.org. \"Guy Finley is...one of the leading experts at the forefront of human potential.\" -Nightingale Conant \"Guy Finley has helped millions live fuller, more peaceable lives.\" -Barnes and Noble","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.guyfinley.org","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Guy-Finley-260924340633\/","https:\/\/x.com\/guy_finley"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/author\/gfinley"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/232"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5532"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5533,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5532\/revisions\/5533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}