This Comes With Attachments

I keep noticing where I am attached to things, I suffer. Yeah, I know, so what else is new? What's new, I suppose, is when I'm noticing how many things I seem to be attached to. Big things, little things, insignificant things, important things, all sorts of things can be the source of my attachments. I'm learning, once again, to let go. Another turn of the wheel, another year, another opportunity to practice the presence. Sometimes, I must remember day by day, other times I need to remind myself minute by minute and there are those times, crazy times, forgetful times, high stress times, "everything should go the way I want it to" times, when all of it seems to go out the window and I am attached to everything! Oh yeah, "If I ruled the world, then (fill in the blank here) would or would not be happening!!!"
Then, I remember to breathe. Then, I remember Love. Then, I remember Forgiveness.
Ah, yes, the old f-word. Forgiveness, self-forgiveness, because that's where it begins. We cannot forgive others if we are unwilling to forgive ourselves. Extending forgiveness to others is an extension of self-forgiveness. I'm not talking about condoning, or blaming, or "letting someone (or the self) off the hook", I'm simply saying self-forgiveness is the practice of releasing oneself from the behaviors of the past. It is choosing to suffer no longer from events which occurred before this present moment. By extension, forgiving others is also a practice of releasing oneself from the past, because when we imprison someone else in the past of their behavior, we must remain there to be the warden.
Indulging in the head talk of "When he said this, then I should have said..." or the endless stream of "What if..." scenarios, or even the "If I ruled the world, then this would not be happening!" thoughts dis-empower us. When we are busy regretting the past, worrying about the future, awful-izing about conditions, we are in the effect, attached to all of the "stuff" of life.
Well, wait two minutes, the stuff will change. Everything in life changes. Nothing is here to stay. As they say in the Bible, "It came to pass..." Everything in life came to pass, not to stay. Sometimes my affirmation is, "This too shall pass..." Only the Eternal remains unchanged.
When I remember to breathe, to Love and to Forgive, I can release my attachments, and bring myself, fully present, into the Eternal Now. Breathe, Love, Forgive, Breathe, Love, Forgive, Breathe...some days that's all I do!

New Year, New Me?

Well, we are 10 days into the new year and have you been keeping all your new year's resolutions? Have you made any new year's resolutions? Yeah, me neither. Let's face it, they don't work. Ask anyone who is a regular gym member. At this time of the year, January, the regulars can't find an open stair master, and unoccupied elliptical or a free lane in the swimming pool. The gyms are packed with the January resolute. The regulars don't have to be concerned, though, having been through this year after year, the regulars know too well that the newly resolute will be gone before January ends.
Real change comes from within, not at the gym. We are reborn every morning, every new day brings a new you. Newness happens every moment, every time we remember who we are, not when the calendar turns a page. We can set an intention in the morning, for that day, for that hour or minute, and we can see it realized. In this way, we build success upon success, victory upon victory. Then go to the gym, just for one day at a time.