Thinking carefully, a lifetime is a series of connections. Children rely on their parents to grow up. Young people rely on teachers to learn a trade. Then one day, those supports gradually change. At those times, we often think we are losing something. But sometimes, what we lose is not light, but only the place that once kept that flame burning.
I once knew a man nearly fifty years old who lost his job after more than twenty years working in the same agency. The first day at home, he almost didn't know what to do. He walked around the house and felt like he had become redundant. After a while, he took the savings and opened a small shop. Initially just to have a job. Unexpectedly, that job gradually developed. Looking back a few years later, he realized the saying: "When one door closes, another door will open". A mother when her child grows up, gets married and moves to another city, it may take months to get used to a house with only two spouses left. But then she starts exercising, joining a charity group, meeting old friends again. Life opens up in a different way. The child is no longer there, but the love for the child is still there. Light does not go away, it just finds another space to shine.
Perhaps the most thought-provoking thing in the Ly hexagram is not the matter of separation, but the question: What are we relying on?
If we rely on a person to the point of not knowing who we are anymore, one day that person leaves, we will collapse. If we rely on money, fame or a title, when those things are lost, we can easily think that our life has run out of value. But if we rely on self-worth, a precious profession, wisdom, kindness and the ability to stand up, even if external support is lost, we still have enough strength to rekindle the flame of ourselves.
People need a place to lean on, but also need to know that one day they must become a light for themselves. And sometimes, it is not until someone leaves our lives that we realize that what they once gave us as a belief, a love, a way of looking at life, is still there and helps us move forward.
