What Does Letting Go Mean?

What does letting go mean?

Is it about enumerating everything
beyond my control?

Is it submitting my will
to someone or something else?

Is it about learning not to care?

Is it figuring out what really matters?

Is it an apology?

Is it forgiveness?

Is it one, two, or maybe three,
conscious breaths?

Is it sitting with my fears?

Is it going far beyond what I know
and inhabiting that space with wonder?

Is it making peace with the darkness?

Is it consenting to love and to loss?

Is it accepting my limitations,
in this mortal body?

Is it asking all these questions and more,
then abolishing any hope that I’ll ever have,
let alone comprehend,
the answers.

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“All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on.”

— Havelock Ellis

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This poem was written on January 31, 2022.