by Yasemin Isler
June 2023
Technology taught me a lesson in letting go this past week. Has it ever happened to you? It took me a weekend and a day to troubleshoot all the issues that suddenly emerged on my desktop computer. While I initially tried to inch my way through trying to keep the system remaining functional and curiously investigating the conditions and the root causes, soon enough the system just came to a grinding halt and would not allow me to proceed any further with the way I was used to doing things and the way I wanted to keep on going. I had to pause my project which I had planned on completing over the weekend, and instead take stock and attend to the new boulder that showed up on the road. “Let the boulder be the path” I remembered.
There was a serious issue with the data storage and no matter what I would do, the system kept reporting there was no space left. I ran diagnostics. I started deleting files, I mean a lot of files, then ran diagnostics again. I took my time (the reason it took 3 days) to go through each directory and file to determine whether it was necessary, if I needed to back it up to an external drive, or just delete it right there and then. This meticulous process of whole-house cleaning, sweeping with awareness, letting go what served its purpose and was no longer necessary, keeping what was useful, creating a strategy to return to a backup location for when I need something, was the first step it seems. In the end, there was nothing much left on the system except skeleton services.
After everything was deleted, I felt lighter. It reminded me of when Ram Das burned all his photos in a camp fire to truly let go of any attachments to the past, to the concept of “self”. That was still too drastic for me. So, I took my precautions (above) and then released all the spaces on the computer drive. Finally, having done what I could, I had it rebuilt back to the factory specifications.
I am starting fresh, lighter, recalling the most painful parts of the process to be the tedious and long hours of trying to fix things to my personal expectations and specifications, followed by acceptance of the need to release and let it be, to let go, followed by enormous and at times tiresome patience to make sure that I would prevent avoidable errors, and ending in a state of new beginnings.
How often do we wish things to stay the same, as we get used to them, even while releasing control and expectations could be the only way to proceed and with more lightness and ease? It is not always possible. Computers and relationships with people are different enough. Important thing to remember is that we can influence the things we can. We can start in small steps. The invitation is to try, and to learn from the moments that teach us, in ways that somehow click and make us see things anew.
As my technological tools continue to provide what I need in this moment (and I’m grateful for that), I am also making plans to dedicate time during the upcoming long weekend for a technical detox, spend time with loved ones and myself, spend time in nature and the simple state of being without the short burst of distractions unending from social media or emails, thus intentionally recharge my batteries.
I invite you to consider reducing your time on your devices over the course of this weekend. How would that be for you? Slow down to speed up. Return to non-cognitive functions and experiences to recharge your cognitive batteries. Return to simply being in the moment with what is nourishing. Drop me a line about how it goes.
With love and kindness,
Yasemin