Learning To Let Go

Comet and Edwina (and the other Edwina)

          My new dog Comet is having a grand time exploring her new home and surroundings. She checks out the house (room by room, seemingly hour by hour). She checks on her human (who doesn't like a cold nose in the ear at 3am?). She's a curious one: yet her favourite toy always goes with her.

            Edwina the Elephant was one of the toys this girl brought from her foster home - she had loved (read: chewed) it so much that it was falling apart - so a second (intact) Edwina came as well.

            Edwina, either the first or the second, goes everywhere. Edwina goes with her to the window for gazing, and to the bedroom for sleeping, and to the kitchen for eating, and to the door to greet guests, and she even tries to take it outside for our walks. When we return home, Comet blasts into the house to find Edwina. The purple elephant is a constant fixture.

            One of the things that Comet has started to realise, however, is that if Edwina is in her mouth, nothing else can be. She can't pick up the balls that are thrown, she can't eat her food or drink her water, she can't receive treats. In early days, she would sit on Edwina if she *had* to put the toy down.

            It's not as though Edwina is under threat of abduction; I have no intention of taking the toy away, and Watson has shown no interest in it whatsoever. (Watson, in fact, is so smitten, he tries to give her all of his other toys!)

            As time passes (it's barely been 3 weeks!), Comet is starting to trust more. She's now able to move out of a room for a few seconds (usually to sing to a passing squirrel, or perimeter-search the kitchen with hopes of mysteriously-appeared cheese), before going back to check that Edwina has not run away.

            As her trust increases, her need to hold on to Edwina is decreasing. Resultantly, she is experiencing more and more things - more toys to play with, more corners to sniff, more simplified access to post-walk treats. It's a gift to watch her begin to trust both myself and her situation with her most prized possession, in such a way that she is opening herself up to new things.

            I recognise that all of us have our own version of Edwina: something in our lives, which (for good or for ill) we are not willing to put down. Something that is taking up prime position in our lives, our hearts and our minds, and denying new experiences. And I wonder what it will take for us to have the faith and the trust that everything IS okay, and that there are new things awaiting us.

            Our Edwinas may not be purple elephants, they may not even be tangible: but they are there. It's up to us to have the faith to trust that it's okay to let it go - and to be surprised by what God will put in our path when we're ready to receive.