Conversation Pieces, Part I: The Art of Letting Go

In honor of 3 recent conversations and my official 3-week countdown to the end of my summer break, I am posting a series of reflections on thoughts and sentiments shared by friends and loved ones.  

I love intimate time with friends and family – time spent one-on-one or with a few gathered; moments where time is our least worry and open, honest dialogue is flowing freely. I am thankful for these moments, regardless of how infrequently they occur.

On Sunday afternoon as I sat with a friend, I relished in our sister-girl time and quickly realized that one central theme to our conversation was the art of letting go. Yet again on Sunday evening I was chatting with my mother-in-law and there we were once again talking about letting things go. Letting go in the sense of allowing people and things to be free without the constant strains, pressure or longing to hold on to them by any means necessary. Letting go meaning allowing our lives, existence and dreams to be reshaped and re-framed as things evolve and people change. Letting go to mean that perhaps things are not as we thought they would be and perhaps our lives have taken unexpected turns, but we will exercise liberty in recreating ourselves, our day-to-day realities and our futures. At the culmination of both conversations, we realized what power there is in letting go. How often the very things we are holding on to either come back to us in better shape than when we released it or we find ourselves in a better place, with a more fruitful outcome that we initially planned.

There is joy in letting go. Rebirth in letting go. Freedom in letting go. Peace in letting go. If it – or they – return, well done. If not, life still goes on and we are often greater, better, stronger. Let it go.