One summer about ten years ago Sundara and I went on a meditation retreat in Spain. To get there we took a huge Brittany Ferries ship from Portsmouth to Bilbao, and spent several weeks in the Spanish mountains, learning to meditate deeply over long periods of time. It was a life changing and deeply enriching experience for us both.
Shortly after we returned from Spain I was back in Portsmouth, where I’d been commissioned to tell a story at a 40th birthday party. Afterwards all the guests sat around a fire on the beach and were asked to think of one thing they wanted to let go of in the coming year.
Each person answered this question in turn, ceremonially placing a stick of wood upon the fire. Then our host asked me.
“What would you like to let go of?”
Just then the most enormous Brittany Ferries ship reared into view. The shipping lane was unexpectedly close to the beach, and sitting there huddled around the fire, I gazed up at a behemoth!
It seemed to offer a thundering answer to the question I’d just been asked. A giant vessel of enormous capacity – that had already brought me to the practice of meditation – had arrived again at just the right moment to help me see how significant that question was.
That meditation training ushered in a time of big changes for us. We let go of a beloved home and more than half of our possessions, and came down to Devon to start a new life. But the most important letting go was more subtle, and involved turning towards the light within.
That light shines more brightly as we let go of what is not ours. That shining invites yet more and more letting go, as the light starts to bathe us in its love and warmth.
I’d like to let go of everything that obscures that light. It helps to remember that I have a very, very big ship to help me out!