A relationship doesn’t have to last forever to have been a positive one while it lasted.

People grow up. People change. People find new things and they move on. There is a certain melancholy to it, but you don’t have to hang onto a relationship to prove that it was worth having in the first place. There’s a beauty in letting go. There’s a beauty in the acceptance of temporary. Beautiful things happen, but they don’t always last a lifetime, they were not always meant to last a lifetime.

There is no shame in knowing that people will move onto new and hopefully onto better things – you wouldn’t want a person you love to move onto worse things, would you? That would be weird. So they move on, they find something that works for them, better than hanging onto a childhood friend, a teenage crush, or a marriage in their 20s. Sometimes, our travel companions won’t be there forever; you reach a destination – they haven’t yet. They’ll keep walking. Sometimes, your paths take you in different directions, and that’s all good.

Your child will have to grow up. You don’t always get to keep them all. That’s the risk you take when you become a parent; there is a good possibility the time will come when you have to let them go and love them enough to do so. That’s a part of being a parent, knowing when to let them go. It is a part of being a friend and a lover to know when to let them go. It is a part of being a human; knowing when it’s time to let go.

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