Misalignment

​The photo of Moose was taken and posted on their Instagram page, by the amazing staff at Ventura Dog Ranch.  Moose goes there when we are away. And we were both away last week for a few days.
 
I was away, back east, for way more than just last week for a few days. I have been away for three weeks now.  Three weeks! And heading back home today. 
 
I planned to post this when I was at Logan Airport. At the ungodly hour of 4:00 AM in the morning because I thought this flight made sense because…what was I thinking….  And now I am in SF waiting for a flight to SB which is delayed and gives me time to share this piece while it’s still a Monday morning and not yet afternoon….
 
Back east, at my home away from home, I went to a screening of an amazing short comedy film that Teagan wrote/produced/starred in/edited/created.  And I flew with my sister to see my dad at his home in Florida, and my mom at the care facility she is in, and where we (my dad, me and my sister) went to Yom Kippur services which I wrote about a few weeks ago, and where I spent time with my dad’s dog, Minnie, and oh my what a great dog, who I got to love up and walk a lot and I did her nails—did you know that I love to do dog’s nails and is that fulfilling that same deep, we are all just primates, let us groom each other thing? And where I got to see my beautiful east coast grandkids and my beautiful son and daughter-in-law and spend time at my sister’s (after we got back from Florida) and see my sweet cousin, who I just love so much, who lives near me near this beach that I live near that we kind of (as in we do and which, in all honestly, I truly love that we do) still own along with owning this paddock piece of land that gives us rights on this other amazing beach called Sandy Cove. 
 
And with all this, at one moment in this busy three weeks of time, I had this really interesting conversation with my niece about the ability we have to be in relationship with others that we deeply care about. And what we do when we can’t. When we are in this—I care so much and I can’t be near you—place.
 
And this is what I want to talk about today.
 
Upon reflection, I have come up with a number of different reasons why I think this happens. Why I believe that there are times where we need to let go of those who give us joy while also creating great pain within us. 
 
Here goes:
 
We just don’t have the bandwidth to be present with another person because there is so much going on in our own lives, and we just can’t show up. We’ve got nothing. Our tank is empty. 
 
Or we project outward and our triggers get triggered and get in the way and we are reactive rather than responsive.
 
Or we make it all about ourselves because we are attached in a way that is unhealthy and not grounded in our own power of self-responsibility. 
 
Or we deeply know that our soul and human evolution is moving at a different speed/in a different direction/for a different purpose and our connection to this other is not in alignment to where we are at.
 
And yes, I know that there are people in our lives that we should not have in our lives. This is not that. 
 
This is about those people who we value and trust and care about where, in this moment, it is just not right.  It is just not right in that oh so painful—because you are, in so many ways, just right—way. 
 
And what happens is—when this person who we love is also this person who we need to let go of—we hold on. Really tightly.  Until we can’t any longer.
 
There is an emptiness and a sadness that comes along with this. Because even though this decision to let go is essential to our well-being, it was not a happy one. And we often don’t talk about the grief that comes with recognizing this and having to pull away. And then to have to remind ourselves not to mistake the grief for regret. To remind ourselves that this sadness and loss, it is not a greenlight to return to misalignment. 
 
This is a messy place to be. Feeling that something is the right choice and not feeling good at all. Both. At the same time.