Surrender is an offer not a command. I tend to resist surrendering, letting go. I scapegoat it with all the things that go “wrong” in my life. Surrender gives me a chance to live in harmony with what is. It asks me to trust. It brings me back to the ever-expanding present moment. But when I command myself to surrender, it has the opposite effect. “Just get over it! Let it go already!” I tighten up. I mentally analyze all the possibilities. I attempt to predict outcomes. Succinctly, I freeze. I’m very good at making it appear that I’m surrendering; I do this by not actually acting on anything. I tell myself I’m waiting for magic. I gather lots of information. I don’t surrender at all. I hide. 

Yet I can surrender without command, without fear of what I might lose in letting go. When the gentle breath of light blows through my heart and says, “Rest. Be,” I find ease in that place, an ability to release. Sometimes letting go does take many nights sitting in silence, doing nothing externally, but internally fighting a battle to exhaust my habitual mind into finally giving up. Yet I’m learning that surrender can also be an active verb; it’s not simply letting go. The energy of possibility infuses surrendered action and guides each step taken from inside its wisdom. Like inhales and exhales, it is a moment-to-moment activity, constantly reshaping itself around us, providing new information. It is up to us to follow surrender’s gentle guidance, to let what offers itself in the present inspire our actions. 

Collectively, we are moving into a time of immense change. We are like a dying plant being replanted in new soil. As we settle into the new environment, some of our leaves are bound to shrivel, die, fall away. Saving these dead leaves would be ridiculous, hoping to make them come alive again by some alchemy of the mind. Completions, dying, are inevitable. Now is a time to surrender to what is already gone. Surrender offers us an opportunity to mentally and emotionally finish up what is complete. It shows us how to wait, how to take subtle steps, to water what isn’t visible yet. In surrendering, we can gently discover the possibilities that are inherent in each moment.