The Practice of Release
A problem can also be handed over to our Higher Power by writing it down and putting it in a special place.
I've discovered that surrender isn't just a mental exercise for me – it helps to make it physical. When anxiety about my daughter's choices overwhelms me I write her name on a slip of paper and place it in a small box I keep on my dresser. This simple act – writing folding releasing – changes something in me that thinking alone doesn't touch.
A problem handed over to our Higher Power by writing it down and putting it in a special place becomes tangible. I can see the paper leaving my hands. I can watch it settle into the box. My body participates in the surrender not just my mind. And somehow that makes it more real more complete.
Some mornings I open that box and find it surprisingly full. I've turned the same worry over multiple times written my daughter's name again and again. At first I felt discouraged – shouldn't I only have to surrender once? But I've come to see it differently. Each paper is evidence of another moment when I chose surrender over control.
The box has become a visual reminder of what I've released. On hard days I look at it and remember: all those worries are in God's care not mine.
Today I can try writing down one worry and releasing it into my Higher Power's care.
