Dear Reader:

The day I retired from teaching and administration… I remember… carrying all my gifts and personal belongings to the car, along with a huge bouquet of balloons from my surprise retirement party.

Just as I reached for my car keys… a burst of wind snatched the balloons right out of my hand. One of the secretaries was walking to her car and witnessed the incident.. she cried out in dismay ” Oh no! Your beautiful balloons”!

I think she was shocked at my reaction as I watched them float higher and higher in the beautiful blue azure skies… I was laughing hysterically… I felt such a sense of freedom after three decades plus in the classroom and administration.

I knew teaching, the love of my life, would remain in my life… with future undergraduate classes at CSU and the College of Charleston… Carol Poole and I would contract out to work for the State Department traveling around the state presenting sessions on the strength of combining social studies and storytelling… and lastly… taking teachers to historical sites around the country in summers. The best of both worlds! I didn’t know it that afternoon but I felt… free to be a new improved me.

If I had ever doubted that God was in charge of my life… when breast cancer hit in the midst of my new life…I never doubted again. I was terrified I would lose everything trying to pay medical bills but instead I got full social security disability retroactively to the day I was diagnosed with a medically bleak outcome. God provides when we” let it be.”

Today most of us immediately think of The Beatles, especially Paul McCartney, when we ever hear these three words… Let it Be. ( The Story Behind the Story) is powerful.

Paul wrote this song, inspired by his mother, Mary, who died of cancer, when he was only fourteen. It was a turbulent time… the Beatles were breaking up. Paul said he was paranoid and desolate over the disharmony where once creativity, camaraderie and laughter had reigned.

One night his mother Mary appeared to him in a dream … calm and loving… she reassured Paul that all would be right, things would work out, and to ” Just Let it Be.” He woke up and started writing the song to honor his mother in gratitude. Times were changing, and as sad as it seemed going through it… new opportunities were waiting around the corner. Mom was SO right!

The message behind the expression ” Let it Be” teaches us that when we are stuck in an unproductive and unhealthy situation after giving it our all… it is time to distance our self from it and let it go… as sad or scary as it might be… bring closure and then have faith to move forward to brand new opportunities and adventures.

I came across this story that centers around this same central idea.

One day a man decided he wanted to climb the highest mountain in the world-he prepared for years but wouldn’t accept any help from colleagues… he wanted the glory of doing it by himself.

So alone, cold, dark with low visibility he kept climbing. Suddenly his foot slipped and the pull of gravity had him free-falling with no one to help him. His life was flashing before him.

But right before he hit the ground…a rope tied around his waist caught on a branch and had him flaying in mid-air. He cried out ” Help me God!” ” SAVE ME! ” God said He would… but only if He followed what He told him!”

The man heard God’s Voice call out… ” CUT THE ROPE!” Instead of following the directions the man tried holding more tightly to the rope.

When the rescue team found the man the next day his frozen body was still hanging from the rope… six feet above the ground.

So until tomorrow… Remember when we are in personal turmoil… we must listen to God’s advice… it is time to put the present situation away… ” Let it be” … by letting it go we can focus on new horizons waiting on us to discover.

Today is my favorite day… Winnie the Pooh