Lost Pages & Forgotten Words

Art of Letting Go

I read a quote that said, "to live is to let go, constantly",

And when I reflected upon it, I found a profound truth within it,

Living is learning and then continuing to let go through each and every year, day, month, week, hours that pass,

It's letting go of loved ones, friends, locations, memories, feelings, thoughts, emotions and more.

It's a fundamental structure of life, and though a prominent one, perhaps paradoxically, it's also underlying within our lives.

I put forward the idea of this paradox due to the fact, we aren't focusing on letting go everyday, we do it without thinking, most of the time,

Then there are the times when "letting go" takes up our very being, the feeling of loss vibrates every atom in our being. Like a droplet hitting a body of water, the impact is sudden and then the effects reverberate through our being, echoing in pain, tears, sadness and reflecting,

It's evident in grief of losing someone, for example,

Eleven years ago I lost my father, the sudden drop,

What has followed for the past eleven years has been reverberations of that event, the denial, the anger, the sadness, the memories, the acceptance and so on,

Every year since, I've experienced a loss to death and so more droplets hit the body of water that is my emotions, more droplets, more ripples in the unsteady waters,

What started out as a still puddle, quickly turned into a babbling brooke, then a rapid river and finally a vengeful ocean, its waters never calm.

There is an art to this letting go lark,

Some people are well versed in this particular number, they are aware of its highs and lows, it's never ending torrent of twist and turns,

Others are new to it, learning as though walking through a maze blindfolded, straights and dead ends, certainty and failure, on their way to learning and unteachable art.

Being caught in this paradoxical art is a certainty in life,

How it's dealt with, well, that's individual, it's unique,

It can be 3am and you're submerged in the unforgiving blackness of night and you're screaming into a pillow, begging for your loved one to return,

It can be 11am and you're caught in the shadow of a tree on a warm summers day and you're staring blankly into space, all the lights are on, but, no ones home,

You're lost, alone, trying to make sense and meanings out of the senseless and nonsense of this confusing life.

To live is to let go, constantly,

But to live is also to learn, continuously,

To live is to be unique in each and every situation faced,

It's to be strong and fight a war that's you against the world,

To live is to allow yourself the pleasure of drowning in the waters of your emotions but rising from the ashes of the fire burning deep inside you, stronger than ever before,

It's continually growing, evolving and changing,

It's mastering the art of letting you go,

The you that left me when I was ten years ago,

The you that disappeared when I was eighteen years ago,

The you that destroyed my foundations and left me crumbling at twenty-one,

It's to all of you and mastering the fact I've been able to let all of you go, because I had too, because holding onto those not coming back is like swimming against the current with no end in sight, it's the uphill battle and the bottle of every empty bottle,

I let go of you for me, because I'm stronger than ever after rising from the ashes,

I mastered letting you go and I'm still living, constantly.