Day 5: Letting Go

I just signed the Reverb10 contract, donated to the effort and now I will devote this Crypto blog to the cause for the remainder of December. Why? Coming off of nanowrimo and writing 50 thousand words is a powerful process. I'm in the habit of daily writing and don't want to lose that habit. It's a good one. I pretty much found my groove of about 1250 per day. 1600 or 1800 was hard, but I could generally hit 1250 without breaking much of a sweat. Reverb suggests 750 per day on their daily prompt. And so far, I love the prompts!

My friend Mo sent the link and it's so in sync with my current thoughts, it seemed like a perfect plan for ending a year and a decade. I'll start with Prompt #1 which was to sum up this past year (2010) in a word. I selected the word RELEASE back in January. I wanted to release my novel, my anger, some of my old habits and expectations. I also said my only goal for the year was to "let go." So how syncronicitious is that! Happens to be our Day 5 Prompt. I did complete and publish my novel in 2010. (References below and on the book and blog: www.AKSbook.com) I've worked on my anger issue all year. Have I released it? Not completely, but I am making progress. Old habits and expectations? I am using various Buddhist techniques on all these issues: Tibetan healing practices, meditation, mindfulness, and writing therapy (like this.) Letting go involves so much -- expectations of myself, others, and finding new feelings. It's a process, a practice. When I started practicing T'ai Chi Chih again this year, I truly realized everything is a practice. As Pema Chodron says, "Grappling with the teachings IS our practice." If we can make a little headway we should feel gratitude and keep going. The goal is improvement, not perfection.