Thursday, January 17, 2008

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Ditching Pain


A recent article on CNN.com from Oprah.com talks about the importance of letting go of what bothers us... recognizing what hurts and then focusing our attention elsewhere. It really hit home in regards to the process that my family has been going through for the past year adjusting to the loss of Mom. Fighting the pain makes it worse and wallowing in it is just plain miserable. Acknowledging it and then letting go is definitely the path that hurts the least.

It also applies to smaller challenges in life too, though. I've been a bit baffled at times by the Buddhist notion of 'attachment' and how some interpret it to mean they should avoid relationships and/or situations in life that will lead to pain when lost. I wonder if it really is about embracing exactly those relationships and situations... and then not being attached to the pain when they eventually end. Just a thought.

I like the line at the end, "By not trying to control the uncontrollable, we get what we thought we'd get if we were in control."