Designed to enable a person to regard all of life with an open mind and a willing heart, detachment – hold indifference – is the foundation of spiritual discernment. To discern is to choose between available options of the grounds that both are good but that one is more likely at this time to be preferable. It is the willingness to accept the idea that one option is more likely to result in greater growth at this particular time that can be expected from the other under these prevailing conditions, thought both are good possibilities. Discernment and detachment are lifelines out of the pit of loss and the island of isolation to which it threatens to doom us. Detachment teaches us to let go. Let go of unwavering answers. Let go of present achievements. Let go of life’s little hoards of trinkets. Let go of the now which is frozen in emotion for the sake of a future freed from old chains. It is the ability to see that there are many things of value in our lives, some of them more suited to one time that to another.

The essence of life is not to find the one thing that satisfies us but to realize that nothing can ever completely satisfy us. And that’s all right.

Scarred by Struggle, Transformed by Hope

Joan D. Chittister ( page 35)