I’m of the firm belief that despite all the self-helpers and their rhetoric of finding yourself, flowing, meditating, remembering yourself, loving yourself … it’s all just a con if you aren’t that well at forgetting.
“To be able to forget means sanity.” Jack London
When one truly “forgets”, you forgive all that came before - him, her, you, it. You also don’t put any effort into trying to move and influence the future (which is the essence of magical thinking - something we all do and are so good at).
Never try. It’s the trying that gets in the way.
I’ll write more at length about my philosophy of forgetting, and unclinging. For now, just a couple of poems on this same theme which might or might not open the door and power of forgetting, for you. See the other on the YouTube channel. Similar but different.
“Blessed are the forgetful, for they get the better even of their blunders.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche
Forget It
When people find out I’m a poet
they often think I know shit
and have the key to the pearly gates
or have memorized
the magic formula of the universe.
What a laugh!
Sorry. Not!
But I do know one thing
being the hedgehog I am,
and when someone asks me,
”What should I do?”
I tell them, “let it happen.”
Tolerate the ambiguity.
Forget it.
Forget the anxiety
the rent due, the mortgage unpaid,
what’ll happen when you’re toothless and 80.
Forget it.
How to pay for the kid’s college,
the medical bills, the next set of tires,
how to pay for the X-mas presents.
Forget it.
How to make her
love you
hate me
stay with me.
Forget it!
The universe wasn’t made for you.
You’re just a smudge on
the windshield of time,
a grain of sand in an
infinite hour glass.
Forget it.
Trust in the universe out there.
Play your role.
Maybe it’s not the way you want it
but that’s ok,
you’re here
enjoy the ride
and the energy you
didn’t spend fretting
will fix things up for you well.
Forget it.
It’s like the first time
as a kid
you let your hands
leave the handlebars.
Ah! How good is life!
Forget it.
Get out of your own way.
Hug the universe
as you ride along
hands-free
a baby trusting to be fed.
Forget it!
The Power of Forgetting