Wheat and mud are all around; you see sacksful of grains while gems and precious stones can be retrieved only after enormous, painstaking efforts. Ditto with living people.
Silence of the virtuous: There is more of trash and unwanted than the useful all around. The destructive forces are tempting too. So, it is quite a challenge to keep oneself on righteous, proper track.
Same is with people. The world abounds with mediocre things that shall serve none of your purpose, and people who shall not deliver. Even those you consider close ones, may ditch you at critical occasioni. Like, you want to immediately send a medicine for Mr ‘B’ through Mr ‘A’ who is proceeding there. Mr ‘A’ does visit Mr ‘B’ but returns without delivering the awaited medicine to Mr ‘B’! Those who ‘deliver’ are the real persons you can depend upon. Such a person means what they say.
The great challenge to distinguish: What stuff, and what people shall you like to be associated with and retain, and who you ignore or drop [read delete] is the vital question. The choice sets the tenor and drift of heights you shall be attaining in life time.
The line between what to hold on and what to let go is often hazy. Real situations in life warrant taking a stand. The choice requires hard thinking and vision to tide over the moral dilemma. A casual or hasty decision may land one in irrevocably untoward situations. So, we find a breed of people forever cursing their circumstances.
Ignore the unwanted: The value system one inherits together with add-ons that become part of one’s being constitutes the bedrock of one’s convictions, beliefs, behavioural patterns, proclivities, and response in a multiple-choice setting. The satisfaction and happiness one derives from a particular act is a function of choices repeatedly exercised. Clinging to past impinges on our forward growth in life. “Unless you let go, unless you forgive yourself, unless you forgive the situation, unless you realise that the situation is over, you cannot move forward,” said the motivational author, Steve Maraboli.
In our universe of abundance, there is far more to be discarded than imbibed or retained. Then only one can stay focused on essentials and conserve one’s energies for the pursuit of superior outcomes and spiritual upgradation. Considering that it is not easy to delink ourselves from the people world driven by ego, fake values, and cosmetic relationships, Havelock Ellis advised: “All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on.”
Unseen beauties: There are beautiful places you didn’t visit, excellent people you never met, inspiring books, narratives and songs you neither read or heard that can add value to your life making it more meaningful and enjoyable. You have just to espouse the positive entities. But for that you must first eliminate the tempting, negative forces within and around like the siren call of the mermaids.
It’s said, you can’t defeat your demons viz. the negative entities so long as you continue enjoying their company. Wisdom lies in disassociating oneself from those with track record of draining or degrading you. Better treat such people as short distance co-travellers, and not associate of your journey of life.
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Concise version of this article was carried by Economic Times (edit page, Speaking Tree column) on 06 July 2023, Thursday with the title, “To hold on, or let go?” Link of online paper: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/speaking-tree/to-hold-on-or-let-go/articleshow/101524027.cms
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The blog has a powerful message.
Loved this article! It mirrors what keeps on going inside us. True, much around us keeps us struck. People around us who have been tested in trying times, fail us miserably but still we are unable to let them go, and we repent later! It needs more strength perhaps than we have.