The hardest thing for me to learn wasn't losing.

I thought that remembering was holding on. Creía que soltar significaba perder. And that's why I stayed. Holding on to conversations that are closed. Moments that had already passed. People who were already walking in a different direction. Until one day I understood something the trees have known for forever. Do not fight the fall. They don't negotiate with the leaves. Don't ask them to stay. They just drop them. And yet, they don't lose all they were. Because some things stay. The roots are still there. The wood guards every season. And the earth preserves that which one day fell. Then I understood something that had taken me years to accept. Falling leaves don't disappear. They become part of the soil that will feed next spring. And people don't leave completely either. Some people leave behind memories. Other leave learnings. Others leave wounds. But even those wounds end up becoming part of the strength with which you grow again. Because not everything that leaves your life is lost. There are things that get under the skin. There are voices that still live in your memory. There are hugs that continue to stay with you many years later. And there are absences that, without you realizing it, end up teaching you who you are. Now I understand something that I used to have a hard time accepting. I didn't come to hold back every leaf. Not every emotion. Not every single person. Came to live them while they lasted. And to let them go when their time came. Because the tree that refuses fall... also denies spring. Is there a leaf you're still trying to hold on to.. when maybe it's already part of the earth that's helping you grow? — Jose Luis