There is a time to let go

There is always a time to let go, the trouble is we often forget when that is.

I witnessed an astonishing scene on a wet, wintery night in Trafalgar Square. A busker was happily playing his set, supported by two older women who danced and tapped their feet in tune to the music. A group of tourists gathered in the square and upset his equilibrium. They were carrying a big inflatable yellow banana (this fact will become relevant later on). One of the crowd jumped on the wall and started a chant with his fellow comrades all to the disgust of the busker. The busker then started a rant and it wasn’t even in time to the music.

 

I was surprised at his starting point. He had somehow managed to connect the inflatable yellow banana with being black and berated the air and his two supporters for the fact that white people don’t care about black people and that to the starving people of the world a banana is food! He went on and on and on and on, long after the crowd had dispersed, even vowing not to come back to Trafalgar Square ever again. All a bit much if you ask me but it did get me thinking about life and in that moment I learnt a few things:

• Sometimes things just happen. They are not part of a wider conspiracy, they just happen. And when those things happen we need to acknowledge that it has happened but recognise that getting caught in the what and the why keeps us stuck in the moment which always prevents us from moving forward.

• We are all performers looking for an audience. The busker played up to his audience and kept entertaining them long after the moment had passed. When playing to an audience, we are governed by their reactions and not.

• We need to let ‘it’ go! It actually doesn’t matter what ‘it’ is. If it happened in the past and is not useful in helping you to move forward you need to let ‘it’ go or ‘it’ will become the glue that keeps you stuck right where you are.

• We can never get back the time. Each moment we waste on trivia or past situations that we cannot change is delaying our opportunities to celebrate a success.