From the moment that we are born we begin the act of letting go. We must let go of the safety of the womb and come out into the world, a world that will continue to force us to face ourselves whether we want to or not.
The act of letting go begins with looking at ourselves, even at the very early stages of our lives. There are so many small things in childhood that we let go of as we grow into adults. Most of these things we do not miss because we replace them with new situations, people, and possessions so that we hardly remember what we have let go of.
But as we grow older we must let go of harder things, we must face the death of others, relationships that go bad, employment that gets terminated, new possession that mean more to us, feelings of anger and resentment but we learn that this is part of life and we cannot hold on to any of them for they all become part of our pasts.
All of this letting go is in preparation for what is to come. When we practice letting go, we become better people for we are not clinging to our past or what is unresolved. At the end of life, the only thing left to let go of is our own life.