Completely out of season

In going through a Random Pile O' Stuff, I found this paragraph. I'm not sure where it came from, since it looks like it was cut out of a larger piece of paper, and I don't remember having seen it before. I also can't credit it. It has to do with Tashlich, the Jewish custom practiced on Rosh Hashanah afternoon of casting our sins away in the form of throwing bread into a moving body of water.

"Each quality, even those that seem bad, contributed somehow to our self-preservation. It had a good life-affirming purpose at one point, even this that is now no longer true. In order to let go of such a habit, I need to give it a 'testimonal' to send it away with my thanks. 'I needed you, and there you were, and I thank you for it. And now, with full appreciation, I know that I no longer need you and I can send you away.' This is different from trying to stamp it out. We no longer say, 'I'm sorry I did this. I'm throwing that behavior away.' We say, 'Thank you, God, for this gift. I needed it then; I no longer need it now. I am returning it to the universe in the hope that it can help generate life elsewhere as it did for me.' And this needs to be true for all the things we want to say good-bye to at Tashlikh. This is what we mean by biodegradable."

I suppose one hardly needs to wait for Tashlich for this, and I suppose Pesach is also a particularly good time to think of those habits and ways of thinking which we could stand to cast off. And considering shedding those habits as regifting rather than destroying may come in great use.