Waves Winter 2004 Newsletter

...I knew that God had placed them there as warring angels...who believed in God and loved him enough
to give their lives to his service. -- The Awakening Heart by Betty J. Eadie, p. 88


March, 2005	W.A.V.E.S. Newsletter	Spring Edition

Contents

About WAVES

Embraced by the Light

Past Newsletters

Email Us

Detachment

by Henrietta Atkin

As I've sought to find balance in life, I've discovered a need to detach from situations, emotions and even other people. I've learned that balance and detachment go together.

When I detach, I simply let go of the emotional need to have the situation go my way. For example, my daughter was promised a place in a great preschool that serves single parent families and others with stress in their lives. Yet they hadn't called to set up an interview. I really wanted to call and ask, "Have you forgotten about me?" Ultimately I didn't call. I just didn't want to seem pushy and anxious, even if they did forget about me. Luckily the school called, and I felt so much better about myself than if I had controlled the situation.

We want to control, yet anything that takes us out of our sense of peace is not good for us. "Let peace be the umpire in everything you do," St. Paul says in one of his letters.* I think this is a good guideline. Feeling peace is a sign that we are one with the spirit of Jesus, who said that he left us "peace the world cannot give".

Passionate, determined people have the ability to set goals and see them through. Yet there comes a time when you want to be more open to the present moment and enjoy what can be found there. The spirit of God whispers in the present moment, and there all your lessons can be found.

Why do we hold on to our plan when it isn't working? In my own case, it was due to an exaggerated sense of self-importance! Also, issues from the past can keep one from really embracing the present. Sometimes, even positive memories and "the way things were" can keep us from connecting to life and our deepest longings. I don't condemn myself for these flaws. It is a natural process to move from one state of being to another. As Joyce Meyer says, we are always "taking hold of something and letting go of something". If we get quiet enough, and detached, we can find out what our spirit is telling us.

My deepest longings now are to help and nurture life. This desire was expressed even as a small child, when I had a yard sale of some of my toys and gave the money to a guide dogs for the blind organization. It's interesting how in touch we can be with our souls as young children!

I know that I will not always meet this goal of helping others. For one thing, it can actually be difficult to help others because the other person has to solve the problem for himself or herself in the end. I've found myself getting very attached to other people's problems, especially when they mirror some dark place in me. That's when it's time to detach and ask, "What's going on?"

Recently, I was giving advice to a friend who is having problems with her husband. Initially, we both benefited from the dialogue. But after a while, I found myself obsessing about both of them, waking up at night, resenting the fact that I had poured so much energy into her. After detaching from both her and my need to give advice, I realized that the situation was triggering my own past pain about divorce and loss. What a great mirror this experience was! We are now close again, but we both have realized that we cannot become too enmeshed.

Prayer is often the best way to help others, which is why as WAVES we are so blessed to have our prayer board. If we let God in, He'll always bring some fresh energy to both the prayer and prayee.

* Paraphrased. See the full quote in the Amplified Bible, Colossians 3-15

Warring Angel Volunteers on Earth, (WAVES) is acknowledged as a trademark of Betty J. Eadie