Leave it go and get on with the business of living

Leave it go and get on with the business of living is a saying Mrs. Harmon shares with Maren as counsel for facing painful experience: take what can be learned from the worst things in life, and do not let their ugly parts prevent the work of living. By attributing the saying to her Dougie, Mrs. Harmon presents it as wisdom handed down rather than an easy promise that suffering can be undone.

Meaning and Advice

Mrs. Harmon introduces the saying after Maren admits that she feels grateful to him. She tells Maren that life’s worst experiences can have the most to teach, and advises her to take what she can from them while letting the ugly parts go. The expression joins acknowledgement of pain to a forward movement: it does not deny that something bad has happened, but turns attention toward what can be carried from it and toward continuing with life.

The Saying in Context

The advice comes during a quiet conversation at the table, with Mrs. Harmon setting down her cup and resting her hands palms-down as she speaks. Maren replies that she thinks she understands. Mrs. Harmon then reassures her about the locket, saying it makes her glad that Maren will think of her when she wears it, and regrets that she will not be able to teach her to knit. Maren’s reply that there is something she has to tell Mrs. Harmon shifts the conversation toward a disclosure; the passage ends before revealing what Maren intends to say. The saying thus sits between inherited counsel about carrying on and an unresolved moment of truth.