To let go

From my yoga teacher:

"To let go doesn't mean to stop caring; it means I can't do it for someone else. To let go is not to cut myself off; it's the realization that I can't control another. To let go is not to enable, but to allow learning from natural consequences. To let go is to admit powerlessness which means the outcome is not in my hands. To let go is not to try to change or blame another; I can only change myself. To let go is not to care for, but to care about. To let go is not to fix, but to be supportive. To let go is not to judge, but it is to allow another to be a human being."

"To let go is not to be in the middle arranging all the outcomes, but to allow others to affect their own outcomes. To let go is not to be protective; it is to permit another to face reality. To let go is not to deny but to accept. To let go is not to nag, scold or argue, but to search out my own shortcomings and to work to correct them. To let go is not to adjust everything to my desires, but to take each day as it comes and to cherish the moment. To let go is not to criticize and regulate anyone; it is to try to become what I dream I can be. To let go is not to regret the past, but rather to live now and grow for the future. And finally, to let go is to fear less and love more."

I think everyone who reads these lines will find something of value, something to relate to in their own lives. For me, the last few sentences, in particular, have a lot of meaning. Taking each day as it comes, welcoming the events of each of those days without always wanting to have control over them; to become what I dream I can be without conforming to anyone else's ideals. There is no design for life (quote from a Travis song, almost) and that's so difficult to realize, it has taken me all this time to really understand the meaning of that line in that song. There is no one good way to live, no recipe for happiness, but rather, for everyone to find his or her own way to be.

To not regret the past, to forgive ourselves for our mistakes and try to somehow become better for the next challenge. To live in the present, without dwelling on the past, but at the same time, growing for the future: this is also something I didn't understand before. How can I live in the present with the memories of the past and the ability to imagine the future? Memories and the images of the future are a way to escape from the present, and I don't think it's possible - at least not for me - to not be that way, but I do think we should strive to be in the now with the intention of growing for the future and not with the intention to either forget about the past and the future nor to ignore them. They are both a part of our lives like the present moment is. After all, the present moment is already the past as soon as it happens and the future is already the now.

And last but not least, love and be loved, even when it's scary, even when it means that you open your heart up and it will almost certainly get broken; I think that even then, it's worth it.