Letting Things Be

After six weeks of tending the cookie jar as part of my job, a more recent wave of all kinds of high- and not-so-high-quality chocolates here, and then almost a week of Christmas feasting, I really needed a little dietary punctuation. Needed to put a bottom the slippery sugar slope I’ve been sliding down. For me, sugar is nothing but television for the mouth.

As luck would have it, however, this week at the Center there are a dozen or more folks doing a purification retreat. Part of that involves prostrations, getting up and lying down. Moves a lot of fluids, pumps out toxins, and makes you strong. They’re doing some fasting and some prayers that essentially wish well and happy everywhere. And I’m riding the wave of their practice a little bit, these last two days, in a short fasting and cleansing program.

This might last as long as tomorrow before returning to veggies and beans and rice. For now, though, I’m running in a sort of altered energy state. Sharper and foggier all at once. I’m less inclined to sprint to do more work. Finding my edges, accepting my limits, and looking out for ways to be kind to myself. I don’t find that many dependable kindnesses, really. That’s something to ponder and practice in these next few (potentially) quieter days.

The key, it would seem, is simply to let things be just as they are. Everything is compassion. Now there’s a resolution. Non-doing. But why does it always start out feeling like my un-doing. [grin] Yikes.