We always hear of learning life skills but we rarely hear about a peace skill, one that will bring peace and tranquillity in our lives: the art of letting go.
As life evolves, we move to the next level only if we let things go. It may be a habit, passion, person or thing, but we have to let go of it at the right time like a cricketer who retires with grace at the appropriate time.
My friend would be heartbroken every evening ever since her son started going to school. One day, I caught her wiping her tears and when I prodded further, she came out with an extremely amusing fact. The boy was five and on returning from school, he would head straight to the nearby flat where his best friend lived. With pathos, she told me, “Last year, he used to run straight into my arms after he got down from his school bus, but look at him now he hardly cares for me.”
Parents in our country find it hard to let go. We can very easily come across a 90-year-old mother telling her 70-year-old son to take an oil bath and compelling him to to eat more and more rice and rasam. She hardly realises neither the oil bath nor the rice is good for her highly diabetic and asthmatic son now.
Letting go of the habits we cultivated over the years is yet another thing. The number of cigarettes that you smoked, the glasses of wine you drank or the portions of potato chips you munched as a youngster are not going to be the same in your sixties. In learning to let go of these habits lies the key to good health in your twilight years.
We carry in our hearts deep-rooted anger against people who wronged us. For our own peace, we have to learn to let go of anger.
Last but not the least, we have to let go of our loved ones at some point of time. Many children find it hard to let go of their parents even when they are terminally ill. Many old people are made to undergo innumerable treatments which may increase the number of days they live but not the quality of life. Bidding adieu and letting them go gracefully from this earth is another way of immense love.
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