Letting Go

Caden had a balloon dog. He walked the dog frequently for a few days. But every morning when he woke up and took a look at the dog, it got skinnier and skinnier. And finally one day, it got so sick that it could not walked anymore.

He took the balloon dog and walked to me with his curious eyes: Why wouldn’t doggy walk anymore?

As a first-time father, I was thinking hard on how to explain the fleeting nature of things to my one-and-a-half-year-old son. That the only constant in life is change, that all beings are impermanent and changing forms frequently.

I have been turning into a metrosexual lately. Thanks partly to my wife who is operating a spa specializing in massages and facials. www.scentdiscovery.com. I have been influenced by her on the importance of living healthily and looking good to boost one’s self-confidence. I have been putting on moisturizer and anti-aging cream on my face and skin, especially more so when I see wrinkles at the corner of my eyes in the mirror.

I flipped through the papers and I saw so many advertisements on beauty and slimming treatment. People are told to cling on to their bodies, to take measures to resist aging. But don’t we know that our bodies are aging and dying every minute? Although our cells are constantly being regenerated and replenished that we have a ‘whole new’ body every ten days, the regeneration process is going to slow down eventually and we are going to age and finally die.

So why are we still fervently trying something that is futile? That no matter how hard we try, we are still going to get old and die anyway?

Why do we have to work so hard everyday to make money to buy bigger house and cars and at the end of the day, we can’t take those things with us when we leave this world? Why do we have to get agitated when someone cuts into our lane while we are driving, when we won’t even remember each other moments after we drive in different directions?

Why do I have to try so hard to succeed when probably no one would remember me a hundred years from now?

Because not trying is suicidal. Not clinging on at all is not living. Not pursuing something right from the beginning knowing that that something is not going to last is not living life to the fullest.

Yes, I want to be healthy. I want to look good and confident, even though my body is going to age and die eventually. I cannot relent on my efforts to strive hard in everything I do. Doing otherwise is denying myself a chance to live at the highest level.

But when it is time to let go, let go. The key word is when. I believe we do not have to worry about when. We will know it one way or the other. Just like when Caden discovered his balloon dog could not walk anymore.