Holding on to someone or something or some memory or feeling that is part of the past and living with it is like running a marathon while wearing a 20 kg backpack. It slows you down.

Now, it doesn’t matter if you run with or without the backpack, either way, the marathon goes on. The only difference is the pace. The backpack slows you down and doesn’t let you take the pace you want.

People confuse living with it with letting go. When you let go of something that is when you leave the backpack and run your marathon at the pace you want. But when you try to live with it, it becomes a part of you and will always hold you back for the rest of your life, the weight may feel less over time, but it’s never gonna be zero.