LETTING GO: AN ACT OF LOVING

I suppose most of us have loved someone. Whether it is in the past or still in the present, we can say we have experienced what love is. One of the exquisite feelings that we know is love. When we loved, some people may say it feels like they are in heaven. Others consider that they are the luckiest person in the world. Still others would consider that they have hit the jackpot.

The question that we now try to reflect on is until when can we say that we will do everything for the person we love? All if not most would agree that the person that they love brings happiness into our lives. Whenever we see that person our world is being light up by his or her presence. Our joy seems to be greater when that person loves us back.

What if the person we love does not anymore bring happiness in our life but sadness, not light but darkness and not joy but brokenness? What will you do when that time comes?  This is usually the situation when a party asks to be freed from the relationship. It is as if the relationship is strangling his or her freedom instead of widening the horizon of the goodness that the relationship brings. What if you are the one being asked to let him or her go, what will you do?

It is easy to say, “Of course, I will let go because the person I love asked me to.” In reality it is hard and painful. At the start, we could say to the person we love, okay, I will let you go because I love you. However, after some time, we would think that we should not have. We tell ourselves that if we really love him or her we should hold on and try to work it out. We become blinded by our desire to be happy again. We become enclosed unto the idea of selfishness. Yet, is that really what love means?

It is true that happiness is closely related with love. However, not a single line does selfishness connect with the meaning of love. When we love, we need to be generous. Generosity is required when we love. No mater how difficult the situation, no matter how much is asked from us, we need to be generous to the person we love. Even when we are asked to let go we have to for it is there that the true value of love is seen.

Letting go is giving happiness for the person we love. Letting go is fulfilling the wish of the person we want to be happy. Letting go is the hardest expression of love. It may be difficult but it is we need to do. It is only then that we can say that we truly love him or her.