Relinquishing

I’ve been reading and researching about the second half of life. I’m clearly well into the second half of my living. My research keeps informing me that the task of this second half is relinquishment, letting go, minimizing, giving away, down-sizing, etc. It seems this relinquishment task involves letting go of my need of controlling, specifically my control of things, situations, others, etc. The first half of life is about acquiring. I acquire things like status, prestige, a house, car, furniture, etc. My primary acquisition seems to be books. It is not an easy shift from acquiring to giving away. Nevertheless, I’ve begun the task of relinquishing. I’ve started giving away my books. I’ve also reduced some of the expectations, i.e., the “shoulds,” and “have to’s” that I’ve put on myself and permitted others to put on me. It is reality, as well as a difficult lesson to grasp, that at the end of my life I will not take anything with me; everything will have been relinquished.