Have you ever had that dream where you suddenly discover that you’re enrolled in a college class that you thought you’d dropped, so you haven’t gone all semester, and now you have to face a final in a subject about which you know absolutely nothing?

Life can feel like that, too. Lately, I’ve told a few people, “Life is so weird! I thought I’d signed up for the survey course, but suddenly I’m sitting graduate-level finals—one right after another!”

That’s how it happens, though. When a lesson comes and you don’t pay attention to it, Life will keep bringing it forth until you do. Not subtly, either. If you don’t catch on when you stub your toe, later that day you may find yourself hurled to the pavement, Life standing over you, sadly shaking its head that it had to resort to such theatrics, sighing, “Are you paying attention now?”

Over and over again, the core lesson for me is the same: Let Go. Live in the Now. Accept What Is. Quit Grasping.

I’ve had many opportunities to practice in the past few months: my kids have left the nest, my marriage has ended, my ex-husband has moved halfway around the globe, two family members have had serious diagnoses, two friends have died of cancer, I’ve started a new business, and now I’m moving house.

I’d like to say that all this practice has made me an expert on Letting Go, but it doesn’t quite work that way. Letting Go is hard. So hard. That’s why David Foster Wallace penned, “Everything I’ve ever let go of has claw marks on it.” And yet, it’s a paradox. Letting Go is simultaneously the easiest thing in the world and the hardest. All you have to do is stop grasping and release—basically, stop expending energy to grasp and cling. So easy! But—you have to say goodbye to whatever or whomever it is, and then allow it or them to float away. So excruciatingly difficult.

I had set the theme for March as “Letting Go” months ago—long before I even knew that I would be looking for a new house, much less that I’d be moving this month. So Life gets to chuckle indulgently at me again, and I am reminded of the words of Richard Bach, “You teach best what you most need to learn.”

So this month, I’m going to be writing and sharing in real time, because I’m learning as I go. Usually, I chart out for you how I’ll approach each theme and tell you the sorts of articles you can expect. Not this time, though. This month, I’m Letting Go of all certainty, but I’ve loaded up the trunk with some stories and I’m revving the engine. There’s a lot of ambiguity in jumping into a theme without a roadmap, but that’s how this theme is requesting to be approached. It’s as if Letting Go itself is asking, “Don’t you trust me? Aren’t we old friends by now? Come on—let’s hit the road already!”

The daily prompts I am offering this month are loosely structured as follows: in Week 1, we focus on Letting Go of certain mindsets. In Week 2, we look at Letting Go of patterns of behavior, especially in our relationships. Week 3 is about embracing practices that help us to Let Go. And Week 4 is…well, to be honest, Week 4 is as yet uncharted. See what I did there? I Let Go of my need to have it all wrapped up neatly and planned out completely. I’m just going to trust the journey. I hope, Dear Reader, you will, too.

Until next time,