Letting Go

“To live in this world

You must be able

To do three things.

To love what is mortal,

To hold it

Against your bones knowing

Your own life depends on it

And, when the time comes to let it go,

To let it go”

People often confuse letting go with forgetting, when in fact, a thin line between the two exists. It is as if buying that red balloon you have wanted for weeks and wanting to hold on to it forever, but knowing that the balloon will eventually pop, but still hoping that it won’t. It is as if hoping that before the balloon flies away, you get to hold the thread for one last time, and secretly hoping that somehow it gets tangled in one of your fingers, secretly hoping that it won’t slip away. People say that part of letting go is forgetting, but I say part of letting go is accepting.

Acceptance takes a lot of courage.  It takes an adequate amount of bravery and trust to accept that no matter how difficult the coming changes will be, storms do not last forever. It is in accepting the fact that even if the red balloon flies away or pops eventually, it already served its purpose in your life. Acceptance is stopping the doubts, the fears, the wonders, and the worries, because things may not work out the way you always planned them to be, but things will work out the way they are meant to be.  Acceptance entails a lot of understanding, because not all the why’s will get answers but the why’s will eventually compensate and compromise to understand what is happening now, not why is this happening now. 

Letting go is not forgetting. Letting go is leaving what is unnecessary behind, and carrying what is essential in our hearts. It is not putting the blame on anyone for something that went wrong; rather it is being appreciative of the time spent together. Letting go is being happy for the other, and it is in being happy for the other, that we start to become happy with what we already have. It is not letting all the bitterness steal away the sweetness; rather it is opening ourselves to what might be a possible source of new happiness.

Letting go is setting our hearts free. It is knowing that our main purpose in life is to love with all that we can, while we can, to hold on to things that are essential, and let go when it is time to let go because we own no one in this world, and it is in setting free that we learn to grow.