Hold on or Let go?

I saw the cutest little girl.  She was walking down the street, slightly behind her parents belting out the words to the song “Let it Go.”  She was beyond adorable and I would guestimate that she was only three or four years old.

Hearing that little person singing got me thinking about the words…. let it go.  I have a confession.  I did see the Disney cartoon “Frozen.”  I thought it was cute but it is not anything that I would call required viewing.  I certainly did not pay much attention to the song.  However, those three words… let it go…. began to roll around inside my head.

I began to think about little hurts, big hurts, unintended wounds, and emotional wrecks that I crawled away from.  Emotional ouches can have an effect on ones happiness and creativity.  But I am beginning to think that it isn’t so much the pain inflicted as what we do with it.

We all carry around our own personalized emotional luggage set.  Mine comes with a travel mug so that I can have a cup of coffee.  This emotional baggage can come from a lot of places (relationships, family, jobs, experiences, etc.) and we carry a variety of different things (trust issues, lack of confidence, entitlement, etc.).  Each set is as unique as the person carrying it.

It can be exhausting hauling all this emotional stuff around.  So it comes down to the question, why do we carry this emotional baggage?  I don’t think there is an easy answer.  I also think that each of us have very complicated reasons for why we carry what we carry.  We have packed these emotional issues up so nice and neatly.  Remember, I have the travel mug that matches my set.  We hold on so tight to the handles.  Balance the bags so we can carry more.  But why?  Wouldn’t it be easier to just let it go?

I think the answer depends entirely upon the person.

Personally, I find it emotionally exhausting (which can translate to physical exhaustion) to hold onto every emotional ouch that has ever happened to me.  This doesn’t mean that I have gotten rid of all my emotional baggage.  Gripping that travel mug for all its worth.  What it means is that I am consciously trying to let go of my emotional baggage.  Letting go of the stuff that I don’t need to carry.  Releasing things that there is no reason for me to carry.

It’s hard to let go.  But sometimes I think I make my life harder by trying to hold onto things that I need to let go.  There is no easy answer.  We can hold on tight or we can let it go.  Maybe I can get mine down to a small clutch and the….. travel mug.

Cave of Forgotten Dreams

Recently I viewed the documentary “Cave of Forgotten Dreams.”  Filmmaker Werner Herzog and a small film crew were given a rare chance to film inside France’s Chauvet Cave.  The walls in this cave are covered with the world’s oldest surviving cave paintings.  In order to preserve the site, people are only allowed to enter the site for two weeks a year.

I enjoyed this documentary immensely.  And if you have a chance to see it, I highly recommend it.  This documentary is an extraordinary glimpse into the past.

Chauvet cave was discovered in December 1994.  The cave is home to some of the earliest known (Approximately 32,000 to 30,000 B.C.) and best preserved cave paintings in the world.   This cave also has fossilized remains, foot and animal prints, and markings from a variety of animals.  Some of which are now extinct.

There were a couple of things in the documentary that really stood out to me.  At one point, one of the scientists interviewed by Herzog pointed out that they had found a child’s footprint and next to it was a print of a wolf.  The scientists did not know the chronological order of the prints.  Maybe the wolf print was first?  Maybe the child’s?  Maybe the wolf was stalking the child and followed him into the cave?  Maybe the wolf was a pet and walked with the child side by side?  Some discoveries created more questions than they answered.

One of the artists of the drawings could be identified by a crooked finger.  And others by their style and technique.  We do not know their names.  Only that the pieces they created are beautiful and speak of another time.

What I liked about Werner Herzog’s approach was that the discussions with scientists and art scholars centered around the idea that the artwork of the Chauvet cave represents humanity’s earliest dreams.

After viewing this documentary, I began to think about dreams that I had set aside in the caves of my soul.  Some are sealed off and left alone, not to be re-examined.  Others I have left a trail and may explore again some day.  And others…. I am actively adding to the images on the wall.  What dreams have you hidden away in the caverns of your heart?  Which dreams would you like to fulfill?  So many of us have our own “Cave of Forgotten Dreams.”