Day 7: The Hardest Part of Love is Letting Go

 

I wonder, sometimes, if letting go gets any easier the more loss I have.  I look ahead to the possibilities of what can happen to someone I love and realize that loving them means letting go of my desire to have them around all the time.   This is a lesson I have learned so many times before.  

I was a teenager in the 80's and I heard a lot of songs back in the day.  But what escaped me a lot of the times was the artist behind the song.  A song can be so familiar, and yet when I Google it, I find that I know nothing about the band or singer that made that song so popular.  "Letting Go" is one of those songs.  

The Band is called Straight Lines.  They are a Canadian Band.  Who'd thunk!  I just learned that today.  I've had that song go through my head countless times when I have had to let go in some form or other.  What is so amazing about the lyrics is that they can make you cry over any form of love.  It doesn't have to be romantic love.  

Nine years ago, I had to let go of someone very precious to me.  Letting go the last time was preceded by a lot of previous times I had to let go of that boy.  My nephew Ben was 26 when he died in a vehicle accident.  Just that would have been enough to make it tragic... but there is much more to the story that just added to the tragedy and the additional practice of "Letting Go" involved.  

When I listened to this song this morning, the tears flooded out of me.  I looked at his picture on my wall and then looked over at the picture of his Mom who died in a motorcycle crash over two years ago.  I had to let go of her too on numerous occasions.  They are both gone and my pain is brought to life again when someone still living requires me to let go again.  I am tired of so much tragic loss in my family.  Letting go again seems like giving in to the next heart ache.  But the choice is mine to embrace the "Hardest Part of Love".  Maybe that is where Love shines the most.   

"Letting Go" by Straight Lines

They say that if you love somebody
You've gotta set them free
And if you really love somebody
You gotta let them be

Well, I don't wanna tie you down
We both need room to grow
But it's so easy havin' you around
And the hardest part of love is letting go

It's easy to depend on someone
To be part of your life
And all the time you spend with someone
Could make you hold too tight

Well, I don't wanna tie you down
We both need room to grow
But it's so easy havin' you around
And the hardest part of love is letting go

The hardest part of love is letting go
The hardest part of love is letting go

They say that if you hold on to it
It's gonna slip away
But if the feeling's really true
Then you know it's gonna stay

Well, I don't wanna tie you down

We both need room to grow

But it's so easy havin' you around

And the hardest part of love is letting go

Letting go

Letting go

The hardest part of love is letting go

(Released in 1981:  Writers David Sinclair and Bob Buckley.  Key members of the Canadian band Straight Lines included: Bob Buckley: Vocals, Keyboards; David Sinclair: Guitar; Peter Clarke: Bass; Darryl Burgess: Drums (original); Peter Padden: Percussion; Geoff Eyre: Drums)