Time To Let Go

~ Ella, First Citizen ~

 

  She could never remember, was it a ‘Model-T’, maybe a 1915 Dodge Model 30, surely not the more elite Benz or Pierce-Arrow. What she knew was that for her graduation present in 1922, she got to drive a car owned by her best friends family. And though it was her very first, and most memorable time to drive, it would be far from her last. No, that day would come nearly 70 years later, the day she sold her Nissan Stanza. It had been a couple years in the making. Request and hints from both family and friends finally convinced her that the time had come, the ‘time to let go’. But “Letting Go”, meant letting go of a freedom that is … that was so treasured.

Chelsea was sixteen, for most her age, life was full of expectation, of hope. Returning from Paris, where she and her mother spent a glorious week of sites and taste, she needed a nights rest in Portland before completing her journey home, only two hours south. We had the privilege to offer her an oxygen tank for the night. A service that was customary for our Fire Department.

For Chelsea she had come to accept that it was ‘time to let go’. And though mom had made the same decision, understandably she was not ready, nor willing to release her only daughter. That said, this trip, these memories, they will forever bring the same smile on her face, that was hers while she told of her story.

Far from ever being one of ‘the’ fastest, still his times were decent. That sub six minute mile over two miles, the 53 second 400, and the 16:45 climbing 85 stories of the Empire State building were some of his most treasured events. And even at the age of forty-two, he was able to garner one more sub minute in the 400. Yet he knew that chasing to better these, well it was ‘time to let go’.

Life is full of growth, full of higher expectations, and the opportunity to become the best at what we do, or what we’re capable to do. Yet a day will come, a moment to accept, that it is ‘Time To Let Go’. For some, they seem unwilling to bear the inescapable.

Perhaps there are no differences between the three above ~ each a follower of Christ, and those who do not. What I know … is the hope that all three had. In First Corinthians Paul says, “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, the dead shall be raised and we shall put on the imperishable”. Or in Philippians 1:21 Paul, while in prison, makes this very profound statement, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain”.

My daily hope is live my best for His kingdom until the day I can no longer. But I know, I accept that “My best” will change with each passing year, sometimes each passing day. There will even come a day when it will be ‘time to let go’ of my motorcycle riding days. Yeah, I may be fighting that one. Just saying :)

 

                The song I've selected, 'Say I Won't' by Mercy Me sings of the paradox to 'Time To Let Go'                                                                          Only with wisdom (and sometimes incredible determination) do we know the difference.

The stories above are mostly true. Ella, (or Grandma Ella), was the first story, born in 1906. I remember the many conversations that we enjoyed over our years of friendship. Living till the age of ninety-seven, the telling of some of her ‘first’ were always quite fun. Chelsea (unknown actual name) was a patient that we once provided an oxygen tank during a necessary nights layover in a hotel near PDX. Dying of cancer, she and her mother had just returned from an amazing adventure to Paris. And the last story … well, that is ‘moi’ of course. Age brings stages, events, aspects of life which conclude as ‘times to let go’. ‘Being ready’ for these moments is likely an impossibility. Yet, I hope for grace, perhaps His grace to be able to transition when such a time arrives. 

                                ~ Written in honor of CB Menveg, aka Nana, who would have been ninety-seven today ~