How do you let go of attachment to things? Don't even try. It's impossible. Attachment to things drops away by itself when you no longer seek to find yourself in them.
--Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose, p. 45
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Yes, and it seems like the more I build connection with my inner places (inc. the Spirit of the Universe or Higher Power inside), the less rigidly I need to hold on to things or even individuals. I still value things and relationships, but ... there's a definite sense that each has only a portion of my attention and that, even though I might prefer their continuance, should the thing/person part I would still be my expansive self. Pleasure may accompany the person/thing, but that which is long lasting about me is within me. Persons/things last for a season, be it a long or a short one, but the understanding is that it's more accurate to think of things/people as impermanent.
This is in direct contrast to my clean date, the one variable I attempt to forge with permanence and has the potential of out lasting my mortality.
I don't think this is really a new idea - it is the essential al-anon/ AA first step isn't it? I liken powerlessness and detachment to each other - both implies that in order to take this step I have to realize that things/alcohol cannot fix me - that my relationship to them is my disease.
It means to me that I must look at things/alcohol/people for exactly who/what they are and have a proper perspective about them. I fix me, a new attitude fixes me, higher power/spirit of the universe fixes me - things just accumulate - those things that I had to have 3 years ago collect dust and have no inherent value in themselves only in the value I place in them.
I just saw this book last night at Border's and was reminded that you were reading it. Interesting that I find you quoting it when I checked your blog today.
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