ROBERT J.R. GRAHAM: Featuring John Cali and Detaching

Many years ago I was a commercial pilot and flight instructor. In our company we used small single-engine Piper aircraft to train students. One of the most challenging lessons for students (including me when I was a student) was spin control.

Many fatal aviation accidents in those days were caused by pilots losing control and spinning into the ground. So spin control was a required part of the flight curriculum.

Teaching spin control was simple task. The instructor and student would climb to a safe altitude, and then deliberately put the plane into a spin. No better (or scarier) way to learn spin control.

The students’ first gut reaction was invariably wrong. They would hold the plane’s controls tightly, only making the spin worse. Ironically, the best way to recover from a spin in the particular planes we used was to release the controls. You simply let go and the plane would recover by itself.

Isn’t that a great metaphor for life? Just letting go. Detaching.

Here’s what Spirit has to say:

“In your modern world many of you feel like your lives are spinning out of control. This is a time of great change and, often, you are holding on far too tightly. You’re holding onto everything — your values, your loved ones, your material possessions, even your spiritual ideals — far too tightly.

“So the spinning continues, in an ever-increasing downward spiral. You feel lost, hurt, not knowing where or to whom to turn. Now this is not a bad thing. For you will eventually learn ‘spin recovery.’

“The value of spinning out of control is that it’s a grand opportunity for you to practice allowance. So what does allowance have to do with the state of your lives and your world? Everything!

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