THE ART OF LETTING GO - FAREWELLS THAT CARRY US FORWARD
From the End of One Chapter of Life and the Anticipation of What Lies Ahead
This is the sixth volume in the "Our Time" series.
Often we hold on to something even though we have long known that it is time to let go.
Some farewells catch us by surprise. Others announce themselves slowly.
After the collapse of his company, the end of his marriage and emigrating to New Zealand, Bernhard Christoph Lichtinger spent seven years living in a motorhome. For a long time, that life felt like freedom.
Until he realised that his longing had changed.
THE ART OF LETTING GO tells the story of that transformation – and of the experience that letting go does not always mean losing something. Sometimes it is precisely what creates space for whatever wishes to come next.
The book explores farewells and new beginnings, freedom and loneliness, belonging and the desire for a place where one is allowed to stay. It looks at how priorities change over a lifetime and why something that once represented freedom can eventually begin to feel like something we have simply become accustomed to.
Perhaps the hardest part of letting go is not losing what we had.
It is admitting that we no longer want what we once wanted.
And sometimes a dream becoming smaller does not make it less valuable.
It simply makes it ours.
You can now read a free sample of “THE ART OF LETTING GO” on Amazon.
THE ART OF LETTING GO is for people who sense that a chapter of life is coming to an end – even though they do not yet know what comes afterwards.
It is a personal reflection on change and the strange moment when holding on begins to require more effort than moving forward. On relationships and places, possessions and plans, old dreams and new priorities – and on the possibility that letting go can create something other than emptiness.
This is not a guide to starting over. There are no exercises, formulas or instructions for knowing exactly when the right moment has arrived.
Life rarely sends a formal notice.
Instead, the book looks at gratitude and uncertainty, freedom and belonging, endings and the quiet courage required to leave something behind without pretending it never mattered.
Letting go does not mean that the past was a mistake. Nor does beginning again require knowing exactly where the next chapter will lead.
Sometimes it is enough to recognise that one chapter is over.
THE ART OF LETTING GO is Volume 6 of the series LIFETIME.
Bernhard Christoph Lichtinger writes from lived experience – from setbacks, detours, new beginnings and encounters that never needed to be invented. His texts begin where real life leaves its mark.
If you have not yet read a volume from the book series “OUR TIME”, you can begin with one of the following books. Each volume stands on its own and explores a different aspect of our lives.
Volume 2: THE DOG CATCHERS OF BLENHEIM
Volume 4: THE WORLD IN THE MIND