Codependency: Conversations, Possibilities, and Letting Go

Touring around with My Life as a Border Collie: Freedom from Codependency certainly provides me with many opportunities to talk with others about the book and to imagine various ways the book could be used: individually, in book clubs, for group study, for radio interviews, for conference keynote speaking – are some of the ideas that have been generated through conversations. Just the other night at Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, VA this type of inspiring conversation happened for me as I spoke with Kelly Justice, the owner.

I am grateful for all of these ideas and the interest and encouragement which is being expressed to me through them. I enjoy a good conversation, and I can easily both see and get excited about possibilities. In My Life as a Border Collie I write about this type of excitement and energy I am blessed with in chapters on Tenacious and Delighted. And in those same chapters which honor these qualities of excitement and energy, I also write about not letting those features go too far so that they don’t cause me problems in my relationships with others or with my self.

Being disappointed could be one of those hurtful consequences if I don’t pay attention to my excitement and not let it run away with me. In fact what I also want to be able to do as I experience the possibility of things is to let them go.

I continue to deepen my work in this area and am using Let Go by Fenelon as a daily meditation book. Someone gave me this book many years ago, and I recently uncovered it as I was cleaning out a stack of stuff at home. I knew as it came into my hands that this is a great time for me to read and be with this material.

Here is a reading from just the other day that I find very useful in my letting-go practice:

“Learn to cultivate peace. And you can do this by learning to turn a deaf ear to your own ambitious thoughts. Or haven’t you yet learned that the strivings of the human mind not only impair the health of your body, but also bring dryness to the soul. You can actually consume yourself by too much inner striving. And to no purpose at all! Your peace and inner sweetness can be destroyed by a restless mind. Do you think that God can speak in those soft tender accents that melt the soul, in the midst of such inner confusion as you permit by that endless, hurrying parade of thoughts going through your mind? Be quiet, and He will soon be heard . . . ” (p. 9).

Be Quiet and Let Go.