Let go


BY ANNA KORSUNSKA (COMD/III)
annak@ug.bilkent.edu.tr

"A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it."  ~  Jean de La Fontaine
"Fate leads the willing, and drags along the reluctant." ~ Seneca

First of all, welcome back everyone! Hope you had a good summer.
Now, as in the beginning of any year, I think many of us have our thoughts pointed at the future. What will it bring? And do we have control?

There has long been controversy and discussion between whether a person controls his or her own life or whether it has already been predicted.

The latter bases itself mostly on religion: if our destiny is predetermined, then who determines it? Surely some higher power. The free-will argument bases itself on the modern notions of human superiority and domination. It is the belief that we are god(s). We are the prevalent race on Earth; everything else was made to serve us. We control our own destiny.

Right? It seems to me that the nature of truth is that it is always in the middle of two radical opposites. Nothing is absolute, is really true. There are always different perspectives, and all must be taken into consideration.

Honestly, to think that people are able to fully control their lives is silly. We know too little; we understand too little. We cannot know what will happen to us or to the world, not the next day, not the next year, not even the next second. We have no control over many things. And some of these things directly or indirectly influence our little world. We cannot deny that.

So ultimately the notion that people control their own destiny is just something that we believe, because we refuse to give into the fear of the unknown factors that actually shape our destiny. We are afraid to let go and let things flow. What if they flow the ''wrong'' way? What if something was just not meant to be? How can we just give in to that? It's hard.

I am not saying we should lay back and let life take us where we need to go. What's the point then? I believe that there are divine factors that influence our path, but we are still the ones that have to walk it. So, maybe not everything is predetermined. Little things are probably not, unless they influence the big picture. Those decisions are probably monitored closely and influenced, if needed, by, let's say God, or maybe Angels, Spirits, whatever label you prefer: higher forces that we cannot explain or understand.
My point is, yes, we make decisions, but there is a part of our lives that we don't control. Some things have to happen, and we have to let them happen.

Let go of all the fear that is holding us back. It's okay to trust in fate.