letting go

I've been thinking quite a bit lately about the concept of letting go. It seems so simple in some ways and quite messy and complicated in others. A friend shared a poem with me this week that only furthered my questions. What is "letting go"? What does it actually look like and feel like? What is its impact on self and other? How is it connected to acceptance? How is it different from resignation, repression, and dissociation? How is it different from masochism?

I don't really know the answers to these questions yet. But the poem my friend shared triggered a lot in me and brought the questions that are in my head into my body. It helped me to taste and smell my questions. So here it is.

Another Loss to Stop For
by Jill Bialosky

Against such cold and mercurial mornings,
watch the wind whirl one leaf
across the landscape,
then, in a breath, let it go.
The color in the opaque sky
seems almost not to exist.
Put on a wool sweater.
Wander in the leaves
underneath healthy elms.
Hold your child in your arms
after the dishes are washed,
a kiss still warm at your neck,
put down your pen. Turn out the light.
I know how difficult it is,
always balancing and weighing,
it takes years and many transformations;
and always another loss to stop for,
to send you backwards.

Why do you worry so,
when none of us is spared?