Letting Go

A big part of drumming 'in the groove' is about letting go. If you try and control the rhythm you slip out of it or the rhythm never seems to have the same life that it has when you let go and allow the rhythm be what it is. Then it has a life of its own.
Humans beings are not very good at letting go. Life is full of things we want to cling to. They may be good experiences that we wish would last forever, or friendships and relationships that we fear will disappear if we let go. So we try to own and control these things. When we do that we restrict them from being driven by the rhythm of life as we try to make them conform to what we imagine them to be.

But it's not only the good experiences we cling to. How many times do we make a mistake, or do something we think is stupid and play it over and over in our heads, trying to re-live it so that somehow we can fix it, but then we find that we can't go back in time and fix it. So we need to learn to let go of these things.

And then there are the things that get done to us. Things that hurt or injure us affect how we see ourselves. And so we hold on to this image of who we are and build a shield around that part of us so that we can't be hurt again. These things are very hard to let go and sometimes you need someone to help you to do that.

What prevents us from letting go? Perhaps it's because we're afraid that if we let go of all these things then nothing will be left behind. It's a fear of losing ourselves - the fear of dying. But as we learn to let go we slowly discover that we haven't lost ourselves. Without all the illusions we cling on to, we find who we really are.

"Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will find it. "