About Nude Not Naked

"Just relax and let go." he said.

I was no more than seven years old when I was floating in a swimming pool. My only lifeline was my father, who kept me afloat with his hands supporting my body.

"Just relax and let go." my father assured me. He gave a knowing smile.

I looked into the late evening sky. It was beautiful, stunning blue with a tinge of yellow. A flock of birds flying home were the only dark cloud in the sky. Water was gently washing the sides of my face, never submerging in it but enough to keep my ears under the water. Everything sounded funny when echoed by the pool of water. A boy jumping into the water did not sound the same as it did on dry land. I grabbed my father's hands. He smiled.

"Just relax and let go." my father said to me.

With those words, he let me go. I was floating on my own. He took my hands off his and let them go. I struggled and reached out for my father's hands. He walked further and further away.

"Relax Otto, just relax. Do not struggle." That was all my father said. He must have repeated it many times and for all those times he repeated those words, I paddled and tried to stay afloat. The more I tried, the harder I paddled, the further I sank.

"Just relax and let go." my father said to me again. He was near but not near enough for me to hold onto.

At that one moment in my life, I stopped struggling. I stopped paddling, stopped everything. I laid out flat, surrendered and relaxed. Just let everything go.


In that one moment, my body instantly floated upwards and I saw stars twinkling. The moon was hanging in the heavens and all I could see was the majestic sky.

I learnt a life lesson that moment. Life gets easier if we release ourselves and be free. Let go, stop struggling and we will find peace and a little place in heaven.


***
Dear readers, my father taught me a life lesson that evening when he let me go and in turn asked me to let go. What began as an innocent evening outing between a father and his daughter, turned maddening when I was struggling and gasping for air and my father having faith in me that I would listen to his words 'Just relax and let go".

Now many, many years on, that evening was the greatest lesson that I can remember my father teaching me.

Often time we struggled hard to etch a living and to make meaning of our lives. We drag our feet day in and day out, fighting hard to keep ourselves afloat in our emotional and physical lives. The more we fight, the harder we struggle, the more we question and the more bitter we get.

It is the moment when we let go that we are free. I have been hammering my head for the last few days, trying to figure out the next chapter in Nude, Not Naked... and the more I do it, the more clouded my mind is. So I resign to the fact that I am not able to come up with a new chapter every 3 days. I am human afterall. I however promise, something will crop up by the next few days and I shall leave you guys something to read before my trip to Chiang Mai.

So the next time you struggle, my dear readers, remember to just relax and let go.