Giving up and letting go

I am a few pages away from the conclusion of “Slipstream: A Daughter Remembers” by Rachel Manley. Coming to the end of a good book is a little like the end of a vacation. For awhile, you are in another world, absorbed in the characters, the plot, the comings and goings, the emotions, the twists, the turns. Like a vacation, you see new things, meet new people. Then, the end looms, and while you are happy to return home, to life as you know it before you stayed up all night unable to put the book down, there is a sense of sadness at the finality of “the end”.

Rachel Manley is an amazing author. Her use of metaphor and simile is absolutely riveting. So many times in this book I have stopped to re-read a paragraph or a phrase, to breathe in its beauty, to absorb the meaning – on one plane first, and then on subsequent re-readings, on other, deeper levels. So, while I was absorbed in the story, many of the characters, places and situations personally known to me, I also love the book for demonstrating the fulsome beauty of the English language.

This morning I came upon these sentences which Rachel used in describing the imminent death of her father: “A force of nature will do what it has to do. It never gives up, it cannot. It can only propel or blow or erupt or burn or flow. It has no capacity to stop”.

The profundity of her words hit me full in the face like a boxer – the final of numerous knockout punches in this book. I think she is so right. We, humans, animals, the earth, every living thing, can never just stop or give up. It is totally outside of our very nature to do so. We should never even bother to try. That takes too much effort, for it is against our nature. Indeed, often we think that giving up or stopping is the easier thing to do. But perhaps it isn’t. Maybe, it really is easier to keep going. Have we ever noted the effort it takes when we say “I give up”? We feel uncomfortable, rehashing the situation over and over in our own minds and with others. Somehow, although we say we have given up, we really haven’t.

There is a difference between giving up and letting go. Letting go doesn’t mean giving up – it is actually taking the action in great faith of knowing. It is a forward movement, a propelling – not a cessation. Letting go is not passive, it is very much active.

Today, if you feel that maybe it’s time to just give up on anything or anyone, it would be good to remember that this is impossible, and that trying to do so is a waste of your energy. However, it may be time to let go. And if so, do so in full faith that letting go is a very active step that will move you forward and upward to a much brighter place.