Let me go.

It was early spring outside. Snow still covered the land, but nature penetrated it stubbornly, taking advantage of every piece of land freed from snow to allow new flowers and plants to reach for a new life. Despite the cold nights, the sun warmed the asphalt that took home from the school.

A third-grader was walking down the road. He was wearing a school bag that was too big for that small and fragile body, but he was carrying it with a straight back and pride. The world around him was waking up from a long hibernation. The woods that surrounded his way home were full of last year’s decaying waste, which surprisingly heralded the beginning of something new with its smell. Somewhere under the roots of the trees, there must have been bones from some dead animals, and someone’s feces were there to prove that life always revolves not only around a new beginning but also around the presence of an old and disgusting past. At the same time, those old and smelly remnants of last year were what said – no, even shouted – now it’s time for a fresh start!

He walked there, feeling the fresh spring breeze and warmth on his cheeks. Sometimes, he closed his eyes and enjoyed the life that revolved around him in kingship. Plants that threw themselves out of the soil, the smell of fresh soil, birds that invited their mates with intense singing and were looking for material to build their new home, water that flowed from under the snow to take with it the last pieces of winter. There was so much going on around him. His way home was his favorite time of the day, no matter the season or the weather, but spring was certainly his biggest favorite.

How much he wanted everything to be different. He would have wished the home he went to every school day to be filled with the love of his Mom and Dad. That he would never have felt their loss or the need to find peace in anything other than his mother’s arms. But he had learned that the old had to be let go to feel at peace. He had learned that there is much more to life that is worth keeping. His new home was beautiful, there were people around him who cared for him. Maybe not as Mom and Dad would have done, maybe there was really something missing, and maybe he was different from the other kids because he was an orphan. But he didn’t care for this so much anymore because he had found something that filled that space in his heart. He found signs around him in every little thing that his mother and father were with him. They were with him singing through the birdsong, caress him with the wind, and hugging with the warmth of the sun.

No one or anything can let go of anyone but themselves. And no one or anything can hold on to anyone but themselves.