“…the state of surrender and acceptance … is the preliminary step required before we can free ourselves from destructive and limiting patterns that we experience in our lives.” – Angeles Arrien

I just mailed off Christmas presents today. This year my Christmas was spent moving into a new house, which is amazing, but it means I’m running about two weeks behind with everything else. That means this my New Year’s post. The new year is the most obvious opportunity to think about our lives with a fresh perspective. We entertain a new idea or way of being and spend the rest of the year working them into the fabric of our daily living. This idea of surrender has been coming around again and again for some time and I’ve certainly had to put it into serious practice to make it through closing this house. So I thought this might be the year to come face to face with surrender. In reality surrender happens everyday in all kinds of ways. Generally the idea of surrendering is uncomfortable, we think of giving in or giving up, but that’s not a completely accurate translation of the this complex word. The deeper sense of surrender has more to do with giving the mystery more room to operate in our lives. The unknown has a power that wants expression, but it can be challenging to make sense of it and incorporate into our everyday life. In reality we are certain about very few things. Somehow or another a wrench is always thrown into our best laid plans. We need surrender if only to be given a sense of reprieve from all the unexpected curve balls life throws at us.

Surrender is more than just letting go of the ideas the ego clings so tightly to. Surrender is a vehicle that allows the miraculous to happen in our daily lives. If we look back we might see how unpredictable our current situation is, or how improbable circumstances got us to where we are today. More often than not somewhere down the line we had to throw our hands in the air and say, I give up, which is code for finally letting go and honestly opening to what comes next. It isn’t possible to control every step of our life, no matter how much we may want to. We make our goals and plans and then something unexpected happens, life, and we have to regroup around that, we surrender to what is brought our way.

So this year I say, bring it on. Did you hear that world? This is the year of surrendering to something bigger than our outmoded thinking, to something bigger than our routine dreams. This is the year to really embrace what life is offering us and to accept it whole heartedly. That is the true meaning of surrender, to wait in delightful anticipation for what’s next, and then accepting it when it shows up, no matter how crazy, or difficult, or impossible it might be.

Wishing you the magic of surrender in the coming year.

kb