The Art of Letting Go – It Doesn’t Always Have to Be Black and White

For The Exclusive,

Tasfia Tafanum

There is always one season after another. Nothing stays the same. Even the streets that seemed so familiar a month ago now feel like a completely different place. Time is fleeting- the cars are outside, it rained a while back but now the sun is shining again. What once felt like a completely dark room with no crevices now feels less suffocating because sunshine always seeps through the cracks. You do not need to invite it. It never hides away. It doesn’t have to.

Nobody teaches you how to be brave with the aftermath- when you have decided, for yourself, how you want to live on your own terms. So, is choosing peace over pain easy? Is it easy to break through barriers and norms set by generations that dictate how you should act or behave? Does it always have to be black and white? 

It doesn't always have to be that way. 

A man once said, “To live a fulfilling life is to live in black and white.” But I think there is more to it. Falling in love feels red. Hugging your friends feels white. Smiling at a stranger feels yellow. Getting yourself ready feels pink. Helping someone carry something feels green. And when it rains and you have nothing to do, it feels blue. All of it becomes monochromatic when see it through a filter- black and white. Where does letting go fit in? It feels more like a gray area, struggling to exist between the black and the white.

But somewhere between forgetting and being forgotten, between making peace with the fact that it doesn’t always have to be perfectly aligned, it doesn’t have to feel easy, it always gets better with time-there is acceptance. It is okay to sit with the shattered pieces, not knowing what to do with them. It is okay if the feeling doesn’t fit into your own colors. It is okay if it is gray.

There’s always more to life. Gray or not gray, you do not always need to specify or categorize feelings, and it doesn’t have to feel alien if it doesn’t seem to fit. There is courage in letting go, and there is courage in sitting with the unresolved grief. But as a wise man once said:

"Light always seeps through. No matter how dark. Things get better."

Only when you let go do you have space to hold onto so much more.