I’m heading out for sesshin today. For unavoidable reasons, this is my first sesshin since December/Rohatsu. After going every month in 2023 and nearly every other month in 2024, I feel quite out of practice! There’s always a bit of anxiety before sesshin. It’s a lot of sitting with one’s own experience, and there can be a lot of chatter as your psyche fights against the silence. My first day is always pretty terrible, but fortunately the energy of the sangha and beauty of the environment generally carries me through. After that, I’m golden. I rarely have any more flare-ups of anxiety or avoidance after that. We’ll see if the pattern holds.

I’ve opened a lot of threads in the last month – stepping into my new blogging space. Beginning a couple of important projects at Watershed Wellness. Leaning into a major reorganization and cleanup project in The Brain, my PKM system of choice.. So, I anticipate that there will be part of me that will rebel against the reality of having to step back from all of that for a full week. But I know, by now, that it won’t be long before I wonder why I ever thought any of that was important. 🙂

See you on the flipside.