Letting Go

Have you ever tried really, really hard to not let go of something? To hang on because you just don't know what you'll do if you loose it?

My grandfather, Lester, passed away almost 15 years ago. There was an ivy plant (or several, I can't quite remember) at his funeral and afterwards, my Aunt Debbie cut off a bunch of sprigs, replanted them and gave them away to all of the family members. The plant was deemed "grandpa ivy". I cared for my ivy through college and through my first apartment but at one point within the those six years I needed a new grandpa ivy so I got one from Debbie. This one made it's way to Colorado unscathed and prospered for the next (now that I think about it) six years. Within the last few years it started to die again so I cut off the good parts, got some good roots and replanted it. This happened one more time. I just couldn't bear the thought of loosing my grandpa ivy. Then it happened one more time except this time all I had were two sprigs. I recently replanted them and one proceeded to die right away. Now, I've had this thing for almost 15 years! I think I know how to take care of it but I just can't figure out what has been going wrong lately. Sadly, the second sprig started to die. This time though, I was okay with it. I realized that in the last 15 years, I think about Grandpa almost every day. His spirit and my memories of him live on in my heart and my mind and will continue to live on regardless of whether or not I have that ivy. Grandpa had a great sense of humor and I'm sure he'd tell me something like that plant is really 60 years old in human years and that he'll take care of it now that it's with him in heaven. So I'm letting go of grandpa ivy, not Grandpa himself. I'll talk to you tomorrow Grandpa.