Its OK to let go

Thirteen years ago I made one of the greatest decisions ever as a parent. I wasn’t smart enough at the time to realize how huge it was, but looking back I can see that it was without a doubt one of my brightest moments. (I am trying to save new parents years of headaches and heartaches by sharing this story!)

Get the picture: My wife, Carey, and I had just come out of a restaurant with our beautiful little girl who was a full-on toddler. This particular dining establishment offered balloons to all small children (Why would they think giving plastic choking hazards to toddlers was a good idea?) and so our daughter, naturally, had to have a shiny, pink one. Her joy was adorable and rather contagious as the hostess tied the long ribbon tightly around that little wrist! Then we stepped outside to leave the restaurant. This is the exact moment when we faced, for the first time, the dilemma that millions of parents before us had already navigated. This shiny, pink balloon was not going to be the most helpful of travelling companions! Where would we put it and still be able to safely drive our cherished daughter home? Our little princess wouldn’t stand for putting her treasure in the trunk, so what were we to do? If that wasn’t enough, we were also stepping into the new arena of having to deal with our child’s emotions if the balloon somehow wiggled off her arm. Not to mention that the inevitable would soon happen as the helium slowly leaked out of its pink vessel, only to leave a flat, lifeless shell on the floor. 

Then it hit me! As I think back to that moment, I am still overwhelmed with my brilliance (wink).  Being the creative Dad that I am, I convinced my determined little daughter that the coolest thing you can ever do with a balloon is to let it go. I mean, you can stand on the ground and watch it fly far, far away! You can even imagine the little girl somewhere else in the world who might get to see your flying pink balloon. Now I must admit that, at first, my attempt at salesmanship didn’t go over very well. It took at least ten or fifteen minutes of convincing. I can even remember thinking I should give up the fight. (She is strong-willed, like her Dad!) Looking back I am so glad I didn’t give in and stayed the course.

Since that beautiful spring afternoon my family has stood in hundreds of parking lots and watched as our balloons drifted into the clouds. It is a Tessin Family Tradition! We take a few minutes and save ourselves hours of heartache.

The balloon story is one of countless cool experiences where my children have taught me an important life lesson. The balloon reminds me of a principle I desire to impart to my four girls. It is the art of learning to let go. In the course of our lives there will be many circumstances that don’t go our way and many people who hurt our feelings. There will be numerous people who use or take advantage of us.
In our next several posts I want to share with you some thoughts about the importance of learning to let go. Letting go won’t always be easy. Sometimes the thing we have to let go of will seem worthy of clutching with a vice grip (or tying tightly around our wrists with a paper ribbon). However, if you will stay with me through these thoughts and make the hard decision to let it go anyway, I promise your life will never be the same!

Let me ask you some questions to prime your thinking for this week’s blog content:

• Are you holding on to stuff that is causing you headaches and heartache? Why?
• What would it take to convince you to let it go?
• What would it be like to be free of those things or people clouding your mind all the time?

You may not be ready just yet, and while I wish you were, I am willing to walk down the road with you a bit. But please at least start thinking about, analyzing, and being honest with yourself about the things you are gripping with your very life. Maybe together on this journey we can move to a place of letting go.  Looking back on these last thirteen years, we have had lots of fun seeing who could keep the balloon in sight the longest. The amazing thing is that, no matter who won the contest, we all felt like winners when we could see it no more.