Our lives require us to participate in a delicate dance of holding on and letting go.

Letting go of the pre-conceived ideas we held about how something would turn out so we can better embrace the opportunities that stand before us. Our present. This dance is as simultaneously beautiful and messy as life itself.

And sometimes it hurts.

I refuse to sugar coat the searing pain that letting go can invite in. The more invested, the more hope we held, the more love that was associated with that which we are called to let go the more excruciating the pain.

But the dance does not end here.

The pain is not all there is, even (and especially) when it most feels like it is. As we begin to let go the pain is followed by a warm, peaceful wave that arises from deep within as we turn our focus towards our possibilities. The tomorrows we do have.

When we let go of what was not to be, our energy and hope can be redirected towards anew. Our heads can turn from looking over our shoulders at what was, to look ahead towards what is. Hope.

Life requires us all to participate in this dance. Most of the time in seemingly insignificant ways with a small change of step and at times in very significant ways, requiring a complete change in composition.

The insignificant and significant will be different for each of us due to the uniqueness of the lens from which we view the world. Irrespective of this if we don’t choose to let go of what was not to be, at some stage we will be forced to release our grasp as it gradually becomes more painful to remain holding on.

When we stay clinging to what was or what might have been we have no free hands to grasp what could be.

The great paradox of this dance is that sometimes letting go enables us to better take hold.