letting go

For the past ten years, we've set an annual intention/sankalpa. Our '23 focus is "letting go".

We've both experienced the heaviness and hardship of holding onto things. Not just the things that were no longer meant for us, but simpler acts like expectations, hopes and fears.

It's incredibly challenging to invite vulnerability and rawness in each moment. And it's easier said than done.

However, to continually let go feels like a whole body sigh of relief. So often we are taught to hold on and keep things together; because there's so much emphasis on how everything appears, on how it's meant to look, be or unfold.

In some ways, letting go is the most authentic practice of presence. Because it allows what is, just to be. Without manipulation or alteration.

Letting go means we live in each moment. Allowing things to progress, settle, restore or pass on, as they need to.

We let go of how things are supposed to be. And just let them be.

The art of letting go sometimes requires elements of non-reaction with no attachment to outcomes. It's the opposite of control.

Nature is in constant flux. As trees allow their leaves and fruits to fall, so too ocean waves ceaselessly emerge and dissolve, life blossoms to decay and days gives way to night. Nothing is clung to, or held longer than needed.

All is forever invited to be freed.

So this year we intend to let go of our past, our future, our dreams, fears, of people, our personas, of keeping it together and steering life down one path. Instead, we'll just let things be. See what and who is meant to stay, and what and who is meant to leave.

And viscerally trust that to let go is to truly be in flow. Allowing the power of each moment.

Life is short. Holding on takes too much effort. Trusting in life and seeing where the journey unfolds brings some mystery and excitement with it.

For presence is the present.