I wrote this on facebook just about two weeks or so before moving to the monastery to become a monastic, 7 years ago:
“Its a funny thing that even when we think we have little attachment in life, we have no clue to what extent we live attached to everything, big and small.
When you begin the process of leaving everything you’ve ever known, and you notice attachment to something as small as office supplies you’ve used for years. When you think about what to do with them and you notice a small feeling of sadness in having to leave them behind.
It is a laughable thought, if it weren’t so true and indicative of just how attached we really are.
We naturally dislike change, we are “loss-averse” yet we live in an existance that is changing with every breath. The molecules that make up us and everything around us are ever moving, ever changing, the cells that make up our body dieing and being replaced, even if we can’t see it, all is still in eternal flux.
We humans are a weird juxtaposition in that regard. All of life seems to be an attempt at making peace with this reality in one way or another, searching for happiness, whatever that means to each of us.”