At about day 18 I stopped writing my daily reflections as I challenged myself to do. At the time, I wasn’t sure if I would come back and write them later and post them, or if I would let it go. A lot of things started going on: getting ready for Christmas Eve service, caroling the neighborhood, our church potluck and music… a woman who was visiting our congregation was put on hospice care (she died on Christmas Day, her service was yesterday). At first I felt guilty for not writing every day as I had planned, I sat down on Day 19 to write about ask and I realized that what I really wanted to ask myself was this: Is it ok to just let this challenge go? I often struggle to finish what I started, and so there was a part of me that wanted to press on with sheer stubbornness just to finish, just because. But I realized that the writing was a spiritual challenge, meant to provide discipline, yes, but also to provide rest and comfort, and it was causing more stress, another thing to “do.” So I axed it. It was the right decision. It occurs to me that as we think about the new year and what we’d like to take up, we ought to think as well about what we might put down.