Attachment... stronger than velcro

From "Seven Steps to Inner Power" by Dr. Tae Yun Kim -
"How to Deal with Negative Emotions"
"You may have already carved some negative emotional states, such as anger, worry, resentment, fear, or sorrow, into your consciousness... You may have felt so righteously justified in feeling them that you accepted them and had no intention of letting them go. But whom does this really affect? It hurts only you. Perhaps when you adopted these negative feelings you didn't know that this option would eventually obstruct your growth."

I encountered a case of this this week. About two months ago my immediate family had an anniversary dinner at a restaraunt for my parents. Two days ago one of my younger sisters emailed me that something had been bothering her about that dinner for the last two months and she wasn't going to say anything about it, but finally decided she had to. Basically there was a misunderstanding about the bill, in her view. For two months she couldn't let it go. She even got my other, youngest sister embroiled in it. When my younger sister brought it to my attention I was stunned- first stunned that she'd been harboring it for two months, and second, that she was upset for two months over about $50-80. In a way you could say she sold her soul to the devil for $50-80 because for two months she wasn't generating love or good things, instead she was generating strife, hate, and stress over $50-80.

It made me stop and think about what I've learned at Jung SuWon from Great Grandmaster Dr. Tae Yun Kim about attachments and about communication.

You have to let attachments go to be really free.

My sister was so attached to her view of that dinner and its bill that, in essence, she had let it take her on a wild ride, like a run away horse, for two months.

And, you need to communicate!

If my sister hadn't finally emailed me about it, she'd still be wrapped up in it and would still be letting it affect her.

Emails went back and forth over the dinner and bill and each of our view of that night, but in the end we resolved it. She let her feelings out, I let mine out, and calmed the issue down.

I realized when I'm attached to something, or some point of view, I do the exact same thing. I can let it brood in me until its all out of proportion and then usually find when I say something, that the issue didn't even exist in the other person's mind!

I'm really proud of my sister for finally communicating so we could work on resolving it. Communication is key!