The Art of Letting Go

Hi again!

"Holding on is believing that there's only a past; letting go is knowing that there's a future"
- Daphine Kingma

In the last year (or school year) of my life I really learned a lot. As I'll be graduating school I've been looking back a lot and trying to figure out what I've learned and how I've changed. Sometimes when I think on this I am amazed at how different I now am in contrast to the girl I was in September. Other times I feel like I'm the exact same as I was all those months ago. Last night I was in the car with my cousin and it was raining. Rain usually makes perfect thinking time, I think. As we were rolling along I started thinking about letting go of things. Letting go of people, situations, feelings etc. I think everyone figures out this concept eventually and that maybe we have to learn it over and over to really get it; the art of letting go. Then I started thinking about what letting go really is and how you even do it. When do you let go of something?

This year I had to let go of one really big thing and probably a whole bunch of small things that felt really big to me at the time. I know that compared to other people the things I had to let go of would probably be minuscule. Next to the people I spend time with, the small things I had to let go of are....well small. What I've realized is that just because your grasp on something isn't the same as someone else's, it doesn't mean that it isn't just as hard to let go of. It still is a grasp and you're still holding on to that thing, whatever it is. You're holding on to that something and your something is just as important as someone else's something. 

I realize that was just me rambling - hopefully you catch my drift.

The hardest thing about clinging and grasping is letting go. There are three different ways and times to let go and in my life I'm probably going to go through all three millions of times. There's letting go too soon, letting go too late and there's letting go at the perfect moment. The right moment. Out of those three, I think that the hardest to maneuver is the last. 

It's like hanging off the side of a cliff by a rope. Just when you let go someone comes running to rescue you - that's letting go too soon. Then there's hanging on too long and the rope frays or the person on the other end lets go or your arms literally get ripped off by the force of your desperate grip. I think that's hanging on too long. And finally, there's letting go right at the perfect moment. When the other person lets go as well. When you're holding on the rope but your feet are on solid ground and you hang on anyways. I can't make a perfect analogy for letting go at the perfect moment. I guess I can't because I don't really know if it exists. Can you really let go of something right at the perfect time? How do you know it isn't too early and something might change so you won't have to let go? Or that you've held on for too long already and that your wasting time and ripping your arms off by holding on to something that maybe doesn't exist anymore. It's literally got to be the most difficult thing in the world to let go. Whether you're letting go too soon, too late or at the right moment; in my eyes it all feels the same. Letting go hurts. Letting go is hard. It's unnatural. It's shaky and uncertain. It takes courage and strength. It takes faith. 

Letting go is the only thing that allows you to be a new person. It's the only thing that lets you change and have a better life. Sometimes you have to let go of things so you can hold on to something else. You can't hold on to both and the only way you can ever know what other thing is if you let go of the old thing.

Beckah