When Serena Williams walked off the Wimbledon stage this week, injured and unable to finish the match, the crowd rose and roared its love and support for her. She placed a hand on her heart, raised her racquet in the air, and demonstrated the most graceful, heartbreaking, and perhaps courageous act an athlete might imagine: the supreme act of letting go.

In yoga, letting go is fundamental to the concept of non-attachment. When I teach this concept, or vairagya, as it's referenced in the Yoga Sutras, I make certain to differentiate it from non-caring. Because, in fact, it's quite the opposite. "Love is touching souls," sang Joni Mitchell. It's not glueing hands, nor cementing stone around any narrowly defined circumstance. Practicing non-attachment means remaining undefined by time, space, or external circumstance. It is a state of unconditional freedom that allows our deepest self to fly gracefully on the wings of impermanence as they take us to heights of sorrow and peaks of joy, sometimes in the same day.

For this year's celebration of Independence Day, let's take a moment to breathe freely on the heels of 16 months of challenge, give thanks for the lessons, pay respect to the losses, and fuel up for the repair work ahead, whether it's letting go of something that's served its purpose, or lighting up the sky with new possibilities and fresh starts.

~ Annie Moyer