Holding Onto Pearls.

People who wonder if the glass is half full or half empty miss the point.

The glass is refillable.

That is the point.

We all have something we hold onto.

At least one thing we don’t want to entertain losing.

Even the thought of slightly loosening our grip can send us into a state of confusion and anxiety.

But what if I told you, when you let it go, it comes back to you?

Inevitably, every empty thing will be filled.

Again and again and again.

One of the fine arts of life is learning to be content while we are full, content while we are empty, and content while we are being filled.

Because sometimes, we need to be emptied.

Or there is no capacity to be filled.

It’s like when you find a pearl.

It’s a fake pearl, but you don’t care.

It’s YOUR pearl, and that’s what matters.

You treat it as if it’s real, showing it off to whoever will look.

But deep down, you know it isn’t real.

And you almost don’t care.

Part of you would rather have this thing which looks and almost even feels like a pearl than have an actual pearl.

Because having an actual pearl would mean you would have to give up your fake pearl.

It would mean being empty handed for a little while.

It would mean trusting that everything which is emptied is then filled again.

And that’s difficult.

We don’t want to be empty, even if just for a while.

Especially when we can’t quite describe what it is that’s compelling us to see the possibility of a different ending.

Even if it means letting go of something good for something great.

Too many people hold onto their fake pearls their entire lives, not daring to set down what is good so they are able to hold what is great.

But as hard as I might try to ignore that small (sometimes colossal) tug to set down these often beautiful replicas of something truly majestic, I simply can’t.

And that honestly sucks sometimes.

I don’t want to be empty handed.

I don’t want to feel the weight of something missing.

I don’t want to yearn for a wholeness I’ve yet to experience.

But I do.

And as much as I wish I could, I can’t just be like those people who cradle the good things, ignoring the possibility of something great.

Sometimes, this makes me feel defective.

Why can’t I just accept what other people accept?

But one thing I’ve come to see is that every time I’ve let something good go when I didn’t want to but knew it was time to, something else has come along.

And I have faith that eventually what comes along will be great.

And it will finally be mine to hold.

At least for a while.