Symbolica

From day one of my son attending daycare for two days a week I have fretted over the idea of him spending time away from mine or my husband’s loving protection. Despite this I really do feel that it is a healthy thing for our family, and our son is thriving.

I was pondering my role as a mother and my close bond with my son and I realised that this first experience of letting go is just the beginning of a lifetime of little ‘letting go’s’. I thought I could use some help so I went in search of a symbol or ceremony to remind me of the importance of being able to ‘let go’.

I found a Thai Buddhist ceremony which occurs once a year on the full moon of the twelfth month of their lunar calender. Amazingly the Loy Krathong (Loy meaning to “float” and Kratong is the Thai word for a sort of raft or boat) was celebrated in Thailand last night.

The people make the little Lotus shaped rafts made of banana leaves, decorate them with flowers, incense and candles, and release them to float away on a river’s surface. The ceremony serves as a way of ‘letting go’ of negative aspects of oneself or negativities in life and inviting good luck.

I am adapting this idea for my own purpose by releasing a boat as a symbol not of releasing negativity but as a symbol of my acknowledgement of my son’s independent path.

Loy Krathong Away http://www.flickr.com/photos/enda/290935555/

How many times can you read over the same post or work over the same artwork before you declare them finished and ready for the rest of the world?

I have quite a few half-finished or ‘nearly finished’ posts and I’m wondering if there is a symbol out there that I might use at the end of each post to help me let it go. Below are a few obvious ways to indicate the ending or to celebrate the completion of a project.

• A signature
• The End
• A gold Star
• A rubber stamp
• A tick
• A knife and fork lined up together on a plate
• A chocolate
• A cigarette
• A simple flourish

For me, whatever it is, it needs to feel like a reward to look forward to, an incentive to finishing the task at hand.

Do you reward yourself when you complete a task? If so how? Could you be creative with that reward? Could you symbolise the good feelings you experience when you achieve a goal? Could you use that symbol as an incentive to remind you of those satisfied feelings when you are having trouble finishing a task.

For me, when I complete a task I do feel satisfied and proud. I usually also find myself looking forward to starting the next project. Humour is an important part of my life, so when brainstorming this question for myself I kept coming up with fun things like my son’s stamps- so I think I’ll use them for now.