Life is about growing and expanding.

Any threat to my safety or my loved ones safety,  real or imagined, would cause a panicky feeling to rise up and choke me like two hands around my throat, sparking in me an overpowering drive to keep them and myself from harm. As long as things go my way, it is easy for me to pretend that I am in control. However, life is not like that – it reminds me often that I am not in charge at all. If you are shaking your head and saying 'she really has control issue that she just does not know when and how to let go,' you are absolutely right.

Intellectually, I know I could not protect myself let alone others but that does not stop me from trying. When I watch my little nieces, nephews and cousins, I get this gut maternal instinct to protect them from the outside world. However, whether I want to or not, the outside world would touch them and none of us would be there, except God,  to protect them. 

Life is about growing and expanding and we cannot achieve these things if we don't let go. We need to learn and appreciate the art of letting go. Some of life's lessons cannot be learned without being exposed to the pain. There is no other way to master any skill except by practicing it ourselves. Besides, life will always take things we want to keep (sometimes desperately) from us, and unless we learn how to let go of them in our hearts, we'll continue to suffer their absence.

True happiness doesn't lie in capturing and holding tightly to things or people, no matter how much I may love them. It lies in cultivating an inner life state that's invincibly strong, that can stand to lose its most precious attachments without being destroyed. Paradoxically, this is also the life state from which I can enjoy my attachments the most.

Learning to let go is one of the keys to happiness. It forces me to let go of my delusion – whatever they might be.