Life, as we know it, is abundant in challenges, confusions, and decisions. While some decisions make us happy, many others fill our lives with despair. Without trapping you and me in the complex web of fate and God, I would talk like a certified tech geek. It is almost lame to mention ‘if’ and ‘you work on a PC/laptop’ in one sentence because, let’s face it, if you are reading it, you cannot be a PC/laptop virgin. Anyway, while working on our machines, we often come across a pop-up message, which goes something like this:

The Windows have installed important updates. To finish the installation, reboot the machine.

Such a message, like many other triggers in our lives, expects a response. Generally, we take one of the three paths depending on the seriousness of the task that we are performing. There is a fourth path but only The Hulk would consider the option of throwing away his PC in frustration. Trust me, the frequency of this message has tested my patience on several occasions. Here are the normal reactions:

1. We continue working on our task and ignore the message with the intent of not updating ever. Very rare.
2. We postpone the restart for a while and continue the work.
3. We force stop all the processes, restart, wait for the updates to install and machine to come alive again.

This phenomenon made me wonder the similarity of the options with our lives. When we are in a relationship, which includes a broad spectrum and not just the usual marital and/or committed relationships, and something bothers us, we take one of these approaches:

1. We leave everything in the hands of the destiny and decide to ignore the complexities.
2. We think of a possible scenario or a probable time in our head and decide whenever that happens or that time comes, we will make the choice of either continuing the relationship or move on.
3. We stop all the proceedings, take the immediate exit, mourn the relationship, lick our wounds, and let time take care of the healing process.

The first option, to me, is the toughest path to walk on. I might have a tattoo saying let it be, I am not the person who actually lets it be. I would think, rethink, decide, revisit the decision, imagine a million consequences, take the exit, mourn the loss, reconsider the decision to exit, revisit the options, and continue tormenting both my head and my heart. I have only taken an exit when the other person gives up. I can never make an exit if the other person is making even a slight effort to make the relationship work. Leaving someone hanging is a cruel decision, I believe. However, it does not mean that it isn’t necessary sometimes.

No matter how many logical reasonings we come up with, the healthiest approach to a happy life, in my opinion, is knowing when to reboot and let go. The mourning process may be long or short, depending on how much you cherished the relationship, but when you see the other person taking you for granted, embrace the funeral and allow time to show you the bigger picture. Some updates are truly important to be installed and for those updates to be installed, you must restart first.

This post is in response to the daily post prompt of the day: Restart