On letting go

Source: IMDb

 Last week, I saw the 'March of the Penguins' with my hubby. The movie was apparently a big hit in 2005, but I didn't know about it until my hubby brought it up. It's a documentary about the Emperor penguins that leave their ocean home and march to their breeding ground each year. The Emperor penguins walk the long days journey to their traditional breeding ground to breed, lay eggs, and carefully protect their eggs from the cold until the baby penguins hatch. Because there is no food outside of the ocean, the mother and father penguins have to take turns carrying the eggs/penguins above their feet, while the other walk back to the ocean to feed and bring back food for the baby. Many penguins die during this journey because of the harsh cold weather. But the astonishing thing is, after months of caring for these baby penguins with their lives, the adult penguins leave the baby penguins for the ocean. By then, the baby penguins are strong enough to take care of themselves and the weather is warmer than before. And after a few weeks the penguins are ready to dive into the big blue ocean and find food for themselves.

 I couldn't help but marvel at how easily the penguins were able to let go of their young. Those baby penguins that they had to literally risk their lives to bring to the world. After painstakingly shielding them from the cold storm and journeying back and forth from the ocean to bring them food, the mother and father penguins were able to let go of the baby penguins when the time came. They didn't fret about the future of the baby penguins. From then on, the baby penguins were responsible for their own lives. They didn't demand the baby penguins to now do their duty as children, but just hoped that the baby penguins would grow strong enough to do what they've done and breed and take care of new baby penguins.

 This made me wonder about the act of letting go. The other day, another mum shared how it was nice to hold her seven year old son's hand while they walked to school because she doesn't get to do that any more. This made me realise that a day will come when Hazzy will be too old to hold my hand. The day will come when I'll have to let Hazzy make his own decisions and live with the consequences. The day when I'll have to trust that he has learnt enough from his parents to go out and live on his own. And sad that it may be, I hope I can do that. I hope I can let him go, to grow bigger and stronger in this world. I don't want to hinder his growth by treating him like a child and sheltering him from living. But till then, I am going to enjoy every moment of raising this lovely baby.

I'm raising you up strong and good, to let you go when the time comes.