The longer we have something, a person or a place or something we value in our lives, the stronger our attachment to a person, a place or something.

Sounds about right to me. And we form attachment. As we become familiar with attachments, however long we are comfortable with them, the more reliant we most likely become on their existence for comfort and security.

Comfort and security, elements we develop when we are confident in our surroundings and situation. We become accepting with our familiarity. We become interdependent. And in relation to anything we can become dependent. In essence our familiarity and dependency are often inextricably linked.

When we experience the loss of a person, some place or something, we become insecure as security is lost. Our love of the familiar is sometimes hugely helpful to our well being and equally if we are dependent on familiar elements which are bad for us, we have trouble letting go.

Letting go the dependency on good in our lives is a challenge and not necessarily something wished for in our scheme of life. Letting go dependency on the bad in our lives is as challenging for in both instances we have loss and grief to process.

Loss and grief make it hard for us to let go both good and bad elements in our lives. And sometimes its hard to understand what is a good or bad element.

Attachment can hold us together, in the best of places or the worst of places. Attachments necessarily keep us focussed on our present situation, to the good or bad.

We might usefully reflect on our attachments to people, places and things and seek insight into their relative good.