Everybody’s got problems, right? Some problems are worse than others. And some people have more than their fair share.
Some problems are fixable. Some have easy fixes. Other not so much. And then there are the ever-popular expensive fixes, when you can just throw some money at a problem and it goes away.
However, some problems don’t have fixes. Not even throwing money at them will make them go away. Lingering problems.
And if you let them, lingering problems will eat away at you.
If there’s nothing you can do about a particular problem – in other words, it’s just not going away – what are you options? Really, there are only two options. Letting said problem continue to eat away at you or acceptance. Polar opposite responses to the same issue. Two sides of the same coin.
Acceptance.
Accepting that, for now, this is the way your life is going to be. This inconvenience is going to continue to be present in your life.
At this point, I’m quite certain that you’re cursing my name and saying something along the lines of, “What the hell does she know about it?”
Well, like most people, I know plenty about it. I won’t bore you with my personal problems, emotional issues, and general baggage. But let’s just say I’ve had plenty of problems and felt a fair share of anger in my life.
But then I sent my problems out to sea.
One day several years ago I recognized that I was just hashing and rehashing the same old problems day after day, year after year. I also realized that I didn’t want to continue nursing old hurts.
So I decided to send my problems out to sea.
Initially, it was just a metaphor for releasing old hurts. But then I thought, what the hell, maybe I should literally send my problems out to sea. After all, I did live in California at the time.
I don’t tend to be a ritualistic person, but this seemed like a very good way to make a concerted effort to let some things go.
So I got a Sharpie marker and some cardboard food containers – you know, the kind that fries and bagels are served in…bagel boats are what I called them.
I wrote down all of my problems on bagel boats. It took three of them. I really unloaded everything that was weighing me down, telling my tale on the bagel boats.
Then I hopped in my car, went to the beach, and tossed my problems into the sea*, never turning back to see what happened to either my problems or the bagel boats.
This seemingly silly ritual was surprisingly cathartic. Afterwards, if I ever started in on the downward spiral of hashing and rehashing one of my old problems, I remembered that I had already sent it out to sea, and somehow that reminded me that I released that problem and had put it into its place in my past.
So why not send your problems out to sea?
Don’t live by the beach? Who cares. Most people live near some body of water – a river, a creek, a lake, a pond, or maybe even a fountain – use whatever you can find to release your troubles.
When are you sending your problems out to sea?
*Typically I don’t advocate littering and tossing things into waterways. Please be sure to use a biodegradable product when you send your problems out to sea. The earth thanks you.