My dad just got discharged from the hospital. Many years of reading too many medical research papers for my own health has made me turn into a health control freak. I am inclined to tell him to do this, don’t do that, eat this, don’t eat that. I feel anxious and unsettled about the medication he’s on and how it would affect his long term health.
But I am also aware he’s an adult, an old one in fact though biological age does not correspond with emotional age it seems. There’s only so much I can do as a child, and I can sort of understand why I was subject to so much control as a kid. It is difficult to maintain some detachment towards people you care about and respect their independence as an individual.
I think life is this long practice of constant letting go, and a lot of forced letting go.