To hold on...try letting go!

A hug can be a sign of love and compassion...but the more you begin to hold on and squeeze and show the next degree of passion, one begins to lose breath. The worse may happen when one may choke and gasp for breath...that's when we realize that you were closer to death than life! This could be at any abstract level and at any level in life and with any relationship one may be in.

A recent incident which I was witnessing between two important people in my life and many instances of many people in and around me...including myself...led me to this conclusion (in MBA jargon...I have done my primary research) that...to hold on, one must at times...let go! You might have come across this quote in some forwarded chain e-mail or a cheesy romantic poster in a gift shop or a greeting card outlet (which is in its dying stages) and dusted it off your shoulder like a bygone cliche.

However cliched I might sound in preaching this quote, I somehow realized that whoever penned that line, did have to go through something or someone in life to actually come up with something of that sort! I also realized that at times, its not only got to do with lovers...but relationships at any angle, level or distance. That's when it stuck me that the same feelings that I have gone through in my past and what all I did to gasp for breath or give the other person a chance to breathe!

Most of us hold reasons citing insecurity or doubt or just pure jealousy or what not! At the end of the deal, until things aren't written on paper or confirmed by oath, nothing can be sure of (Im not debating on that at all here!). But problems when all is said and done...when the unknown becomes the known and the basis of the relationship becomes mundane and predictable. Do we still cling on to our old hopes and fascinations or do we let our love blossom in the freedom of space?

At times, we refuse or argue with our loved ones on taking their chosen paths of their dreams or the risks they have been preparing for ages just because the outcome may hurt them...but for them that pain is not the gain as an ultimate outcome...it is to do what they always wanted to do. What we see as pain for them is a superficial and a scratch on the surface...there is always something deeper and if we tend to appreciate and encourage that, we will eventually lift their spirits and tend to pull them to ourselves and not push them away...which is where my point of hugging and not letting go because they might not come back is all but a belief which can be easily dismantled. No one likes being suffocated...a warm mild hug or wrap around is much comforting that that bear-grip...which might dig deep, hold veins, clot blood and rush a breath or even quicken a beat...

Whatever said and done, wouldn't we feel closer to those who knew our freedom and our choices and let us be but still be in open arms whenever we needed it? If Im asking too much...well, what can I do but hope for the best person to come across then! When kids feel the same as I do, why not when we all grow up to what we become and the values that we begin to follow? Who are we to govern others choices and draw the line for 'them' when they know where to draw their own?

Simple, if we have to live in harmony or in whatever cheesy or corny or cliched term it might sound like, wouldn't we want to live free? Wouldn't we want to do what we feel like...keeping the line of sanity in mind and still return to our havens when we please? I might sound selfish or even judgmental or questionable...but isn't it a thought worth pondering over? Imagine if were holding on to a rope to keep yourself from falling but you feel that same rope slowly slither to your neck, wrapping itself around...the same rope that you held on to your dear life is now the noose calling you to its realm of doom...Im presenting this scene to both the 'ropee' and the 'ropester'! (Ah...the pleasure of poetic license!).

Well, being human, I wouldn't proclaim myself to be able to let go to just hold on...I would have my reservations and evaluate if the risk was worth taking or let the other half decide what was best...ultimately it works mutually and it takes time and effort to reach that level. Simple...it all starts with a conversation...honest and two-way...listening and talking! Sounds so basic and simple...at times which we fail to do this much! Ive seen it happen with my family, friends and foes...all around me! It pains me to see someone unable to chase their dreams just because someone else felt or said that it was too much of a risk or it wasn't worth it at all!

Well, I am writing this today because I have defied statements that have been the noose to me and embraced those who were willing to lift me to a higher plane. Its simple and straight...that to be loved and love, one has to just let go to hold on to what we treasure and label as the most special person.

And since we are mere mortals, please ensure that you do not over-preach and let go that you lose sight...not too far that you run out of the thread to lose your grip on the flamboyant kite that in freedom steers in the skies.

Let it fly...and see it smile in the skies where it belongs. It will return at sunset as long the thread is in your hands and if you've let it fly and let it touch the skies and even race with the birds and have a little chat with the passing sun...