Mary Magdalene stayed outside the tomb weeping.
And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb
and saw two angels in white sitting there,
one at the head and one at the feet
where the Body of Jesus had been.
And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?”
She said to them, “They have taken my Lord,
and I don’t know where they laid him.”
When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there,
but did not know it was Jesus.
Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?
Whom are you looking for?”
She thought it was the gardener and said to him,
“Sir, if you carried him away,
tell me where you laid him,
and I will take him.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary!”
She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni,”
which means Teacher.
Jesus said to her, “Stop holding on to me,
for I have not yet ascended to the Father.
But go to my brothers and tell them,
‘I am going to my Father and your Father,
to my God and your God.’”
Mary went and announced to the disciples,
“I have seen the Lord,”
and then reported what he had told her. Jn 20:11-18

Jesus said to “Stop holding on to me”. How powerful is that statement right there. Simple sentence, yet holds so many keys to lots of things. Stop holding on to me.

How often do we hold on to things that we should not be holding on to? How many times have we done this to ourselves, held on to things that either were not working, or that we should leave in the past? Past pain, past grief, past loves lost, past whatever you want to insert into this sentence. It is amazing to me how simple this sentence is, yet it is one of the hardest things for us to do in life.

All the things of the past are just that, in the past. Such an easy concept to write, but such a hard thing to put into practice. I struggle with this just as much as the person next to me. I want to leave all of the things that have happened to me, all of those things behind me, but sometimes they get the better of me. It is not intentional, but I think we all can get caught up in what was previously, instead of just looking at the now. So, today, I am going to try to make the resolve to be in the now. I have to stop holding on to things, let them go, and be more in the present.