There are colors all around me as I sit reflecting and writing. It’s the brilliant Fushia of azaleas, the deep purple of rhododendron, and the lavender of a certain offshoot of daisies. It’s the hedge green that gives me privacy on my little balcony and the grass green across the neighbor’s driveway on their newly mown lawn. The colors are drinkable, but I can only breathe them in.

I am so thankful for this beauty that surrounds me.

I was thinking about release the other day. About what it is to release people and dreams. About what it looks like to release anger and enter forgiveness. So much of life seems to be about being willing to release. Is accepting the life we are given about releasing the life we dreamed about?

I decided to look up the word in the dictionary, find out what the experts say. I’m not disappointed with what I found. One definition is about setting free, about taking away confinement and constraints and letting go. The second definition resonates more fully. It is to “allow (something) to move, act, or flow freely.” In this definition, releasing long held dreams could be less about letting them go, and more about allowing them to move, to flow freely, to act. There is something wonderfully optimistic about this. Dreams when allowed to move freely may become more than we could ever design or orchestrate.

As I thought more about release, I found some words in my journal that I wrote two years ago. On this Saturday afternoon, these words feel easy for me to write. I am safe, and I am surrounded by beauty. I’ve released some morning tears and the afternoon holds peace. Life being what it is, tomorrow they may not feel as easy. And that’s why I need to share them today, so that tomorrow I will still hold them true.

Release resentment and practice forgiveness
Release expectation and practice hope
Release conflict and practice peace
Release judgment and practice love
Release scarcity and practice generosity
Sit with sadness and grief and practice joy
Release control and practice acceptance
Walk and listen, hear stories and tell stories, keep your head up even when the heaviness of hurt people weighs you down.
And in all of this, learn more of God, his character, his love, and his truth.

What do you long to release, to set free, to allow to move away? I’d love to hear.