Release | November 2021

Release | November 2021

I want to drown in my tears,
And my tears are my prayers. ― Luffina Lourduraj

Silly, silly me in thinking that I was done with release…  because it is certainly not done with me!

This month I got to put into practice all that I have learned over the past year – active, painful, excruciating practice. Somethings are easy to release… like tears. Other things are not so simple as that… but those hard things are sometimes the most important to let go of… and realize I cannot control *everything* (despite wishing I magically could)! One thing I did not let go of was Carolyn’s prompt this month! And while I am not sharing what I wrote… I will share how I used it! It became for me a lifeline… each day I used the space to help me stay focused on what I needed to let go of… (sometimes this was as simple as letting go of frustration, anger, and disappointment… other days, it provided me with things that I still need to work on!)

Earlier this month, I posted that my estranged sister got back in contact with me…but it was not a celebratory reunion, but rather one of desperation as she had hit the bottom’s bottom. (I thought…hoped?)

And so began some days of anguished conversation… anguished on my sister’s part while I tried very hard to stay calm… except when I couldn’t… which was often… so often…too often. Yet, still she called, providing more practice for calm and lots of time to remind myself that this perhaps was the entire reason release picked me this year. I don’t need to solve every problem… for anyone but myself. I can’t control what others do, what they say, or how they behave… I can only control myself. (And sometimes even that is a challenge!)

And in a frenzied week of me trying to find a place to take my sister with a plethora of issues…too many to list here…but in a small miracle a physician deemed her a threat to herself and made her go directly to the emergency room. That ER staff fortuitously kept her until they got her on medicaid and then found a place that would take her for 5 short days. Yes… just 5 days.

(Can we just have a small aside  for the staff at every emergency room in America? These are the unsung heroes of every hospital… the ones who deal with what has walked through their doors. I am sending a HUGE thank you to the ER staff that did the hard work for my sister… I am profoundly thankful for them… and my sister owes them a debt of gratitude, which, sadly, she will not remember and she certainly won’t ever thank them.)

I was incredibly surprised that my sister called me while she was in the “treatment place”. Sadly, I could tell that Fake Susan was back and with each phone call the lies and the nonsense got louder and louder. And I began to get the hint that this would just be a brief stint of re-connection.

But still… she called. She had no idea where she’d go after that brief five day 5  intervention and perhaps it was that fear of the unknown kept her calling. However, I was very honest with her… No, she could not come to stay with us. I made it very clear that I could not help her that way, I would be here cheering her on in her journey to recovery, but I could fix her.

Release… it is not a thing for the faint of heart and there were so many more tears.

Today, it seems that hint was correct. I have not heard from her since she briefly called to let me know that she was in a shelter and could I “pay to unlock her phone” (a sum of money that I cannot imagine was correct… but I said yes, I would pay them… which was, of course, not what she wanted me to say… or to do.)

I have no clue if she is still in the shelter or if she is not, where she is. I am not holding my breath, wondering if she will call or where she is… I am standing firm in release and letting my tears be as a prayer.

Release began this year as very hard work and it remains that 11 months in – no matter how I want to move beyond it. Some words linger on and gently remind my days… my hope is that release will eventually become that sort of gentle reminder.

A huge thanks to Carolyn for providing a space for us all to share our progress!

I will see you all back here on Wednesday!

 

Release | November 2021

Release | October 2021

I am unbelievably ready to release release and because that is all I could think about this month… I have begun thinking about my word for next year and some amazing possibilities are floating around over here! There is nothing like the excitement of a new word…not that I want the year to be over or anything… okay, maybe I do! lol

This was a very “loose” month for my word and me… I did not even look at Carolyn’s prompt for us this month! I felt about 3 minutes worth of guilt over this and stopped myself… October was so full of things I wanted to ADD to my life, I simply released that guilt and moved on. It is okay to “miss a month” for things that have been long anticipated! (Visit with my grands, AUTUMN, and yes… life!)

I really feel “done” with this word… on so many levels and the thought of spending another two months with it is a bit agonizing. On one hand, I feel a bit like an empty vessel… and I am feeling anxious and wanting to hold on to something…what I don’t actually know, but it is there, hovering around the edges…waiting (see above!!)

The good things though: I very much recognize that I have become more adept at keeping things put carefully away inside me, which is just so darned good! Those things are not rising to the surface on their own. I know they are there, but I am in control. And today, I think that is a huge improvement!

But as much as I am ready to move on from release, there are still things I need to get rid of release. Things I put off because summer is not a time to spend indoors in boxes, closets, and those pesky junk drawers. And summer is well over and the weather is even cooperating…a forecast of a week of rain is just what I need for me to resume the Great Big Release project.

So I did some “mapping” this weekend and I am happy with my plan. First up, making the shift (finally!!) from my summer wardrobe to a wardrobe for cooler days! The in-between days have created some havoc and putting things away will solve that! As for the rest… well, it will be a bit more complicated to deal with but if I do a little bit each week then by the time the end of the year is here… I will have tackled and released a number of “problem” areas in my house!

A New Year with clean junk drawers (because you know I have more than one!) and fewer things sounds like a wonder to me! I am ready to turn the calendar over to November and get myself back on track!

What about you? How did your word show up this month?

I want to thank Carolyn again this month for hosting us all! Be sure you stop by to see what everyone has to share!

 

Release | November 2021

Release | September 2021

Everything in life goes back to the basics. — Kron Gracie

This month’s prompt encouraged us to go back to basics with our word.

Okay. So this month I tried to search out “back to basics” with my word and I had some wins!

This year I have really focused on staying in the moment, day, and yes, season. This was a huge change versus old me who was always focused on what is coming next, and yes…lots of time wishing for “my favorite season“. Not so this year… I stayed in summer right up to that last day. Yes, I was happy that as the month wore on, there were a couple of days that I was very comfortable in a sweater. But the release of summer and welcome to fall was a very happy occasion.

I also released the misguided idea that the only thing worth making is home grown. Case in point… tomato jam. In years past we have had such a bumper crop of cherry tomatoes that I can eat and preserve. Not so this year… but boy were we missing some tomato jam on our happy our table! So I let go of the idea that it needed to be home grown tomatoes and did a riff on this recipe… with a couple of cans of diced tomatoes. (The recipe is easy, it is super-tasty, and fills the void on my happy hour spread!) So… releasing misguided ideas worked very well this month. Likewise, since I knew there would be zero chance of being able to stop at a farmers market in the near future, I picked up a bag of apples from TJ’s late last week… there will be some apple baking this week!

Which brings me to the gardening portion of release… I have ripped out all the vegetable plants and have released the notion that there will be a garden next year. I think a pass is absolutely in order because this was a very unproductive garden year. We did not harvest our investments worth of veggies. So I have written in my planner for next April to pass on the garden and I am releasing a sigh of relief at that idea!

The other thing I painfully released was all my container gardens. Yes, they are all empty and tucked away for spring. We leave Friday for Michigan (at long last!!!!) and I did not want to return to dead, straggly plants to tear out. Yes it was painful, but my mid-October self will thank me for doing that work now.

I don’t know if any of this counts as being “back to basics” but it very much feels like it is. Every day life… living in the moment… about as basic as one can get.

I want to thank Carolyn for providing a space for us all to share our Word Journey. Please make sure you stop by this week and see what paths everyone is on this month!

See you all back here on Wednesday for some Unraveling!

Release | November 2021

Release | August 2021

“Incredible change happens in your life when you decide to take control of what you do have power over instead of craving control over what you don’t.” ― Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free

August…eight months “in” on release and still…the struggle remains real.

I started off the month in a good direction or at least I thought I did and then I just sort of set everything down and ignored it.

Because sometimes, I am my own worst enemy. It is easy to identify things that need to be changed in around me… but turning the lens inward is not as simple… or easy.

My notes to self this month simply said:

recognize things I can change versus things I cannot change

And there is my wisdom and my failure all in one little phrase. Like I said… the struggle is real.

Thank you, Carolyn for providing the space for us to share…and make sure you stop by and see how everyone else did with their word this month!

Release | November 2021

Release | July 2021

FOMO (fear of missing out) is the enemy of valuing your own time. — Andrew Yang

This month, Carolyn encouraged us to have fun…and I spent a good bit of time thinking about how to work fun into my word…release.

So I started by filling in my clouds with what filled my day… things I liked and things I struggled with…

Then I gave things stars that improved my day… and the starless clouds all seemed to have the same recurring theme… FOMO.

And while not all the things that got starred are “fun”… they are absolutely necessary which inspired me to contemplate how to insert fun into the mundane daily tasks of housework and cooking… no solution yet…but I am thinking about it!

I did find some “quick and easy” (?) solutions this month and I am happy to report that those changes brought success… or at least started me on a path to solving the problem!

News Fix: I have found that listening to NPR’s Up First six mornings a week is MORE than enough news for me for any given day. I did not die by not checking news at ten am, or at noon, or at 5 pm…who knew! lol Steve consumes more news than I do and in July and if something earth shattering happened, he told me. (okay… he also told me news that was not earth shattering as well… but those tidbits provided some humorous topics for dinner conversation!)

IG/Twitter Doom-scrolling: I had fallen back into the “boredom trap” of doom-scrolling Twitter and IG… I am telling you this is a hard habit to break! I tried a different approach as July progressed…I stopped “carrying my phone” with me, but rather I am leaving it sit either on the kitchen counter or the dining room table. This way I have to physically get up to do any doom-scrolling and that is helping tremendously. Full disclosure… I do wear an Apple Watch so I am not entirely “disconnected” but so far, this seems to be working well for me.

Blog Reading/Writing/Email Hell…which often leads to Endless Internet Surfing: I set a timer on my phone when I sit down at the PC in the morning… the amount of time is still in flux…but, when the timer goes off… so does the pc… and I have not died. At.All. I am still working on a way to make blog writing feel fresh and still seeking solutions to that sticky topic. Sigh. Despite that huge hurdle…the timer has helped me see clearly just how much mail I do not need to read… look at… contemplate… etc. so I have begun “unsubscribing” to a plethora of things and it feels amazingly good!

Reading: Finally… reading, which only got a half a star (while reading for myself always, always gets at least one star!!) My big hurdle this summer… book bingo, and it pains me to say that. It seemed to me that I spent more time “reworking” squares to fit what I was reading versus picking a book to fit a square. I have one book to finish for a cover all and that feels like the biggest relief ever. It was an important lesson in how I should listen to that small, quiet voice instead of allowing that shouting FOMO voice to drown me out.

And there you have release for July…

I want to thank Carolyn for hosting us and for all her work on putting together things to make me think in new ways.

See you all back here on Wednesday for some Unraveling!

Release | November 2021

Release | 6.28.21

If you’re always racing to the next moment, what happens to the one you’re in? Slow down and enjoy the moment you’re in and live your life to the fullest. ― Nanette Mathews

Carolyn’s prompts for June included a Blast List, which I struggled with… I was stymied by what to put on this list. Or so I thought… soon the idea of an Un-Blast List was rattling around my brain. As in… releasing the idea of “must do’s” and reimagining a truly slow summer. One not full of things to accomplish, but rather full of something very different.

Finding joy in the slow moments of the day… and intentionally creating more of them.

And so June began and each moment I felt some urgent desire to hurry to get on to the next thing, I stopped and contemplated why? What’s the rush? It was the beginning of a lovely experience… stopping and enjoying the current thing. Purposefully. With intention.

Summer is a finite time… fleeting… all too soon over…and rushing to fill the days with all.the.things. seems so very wrong. Releasing the idea that more is better… and embracing each moment has made for a really wonderful month! (Although, not rushing to fill the days is not as easy as it sounds!)

Slowing down allowed me to sit quietly with my thoughts as well. This, my friends, is never a good thing… except this month it was different and I could not put my finger on what was different until I listened to this…and these words especially struck me… deeply: “…Have patience with all that is unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves” 

Yes, slowing down has been very good. The days still feel as if they are racing on, but each day feels more full… memorable… lasting…


I want to thank Carolyn for hosting us as we share our word updates! Be sure to stop this week to see how June was for everyone else!

See you all back here on Wednesday!

 

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