Spring Forward

I'm sure, if you are anything like me, this morning was a bit rougher than most thanks to Daylight Savings and joys of waking up an hour earlier than normal. Our normal morning routines, going for a walk - meditating - grumbling over a cup of coffee, suddenly seem more demanding and easier to question...Why exactly do I need to get up at this moment? I don't HAVE to shower before leaving the house, right?Hmmm, so over my cuppa joe this groggy morning, I sat reflecting on this idea of Springing Forward and wondered why I was feeling so much resistance towards this momentum. On the mat, I've been exploring quite the opposite of forward momentum; instead of looking ahead, rushing to the next finish line, my work has been to sit within each individual second just as it is. What if, instead of Springing Forward, I just stopped?

"What would happen if, in this moment, I didn't try to do anything, to make anything different?" I immediately felt the visceral grip of fear and then a familiar sinking hole of shame - the very feelings I had been trying to avoid for as long as I could remember. But then the same inner voice whispered very quietly, a familiar refrain: "JUST LET IT BE."

~True Refuge, Tara Brach

The work of letting each moment be just as it is, without judgement or value, is the work of a lifetime. It is a sweaty, tearful struggle that happens again and again throughout the day. BUT, in that brief second of letting go into whatever feelings are present there is a sweetness, a relief in acknowledgement, and a release of struggle.So, back to this morning, amidst these thoughts, I paused. I silenced the grumbling. Sipped my coffee and acknowledged that in this moment I was awake and starting my day. Just Let It Be.