The past did not provide your only opportunity for happiness. Look for any ways that the present might actually be superior to the past. Even if it's simply that you have learned from the past and are now in a better place to make future decisions. The bottom line is that life needs to carry on right up until the moment you perish. If at a certain point all you do is look back, you have, in effect, stopped living. You need to resist the deception of believing the past was so perfect that the present cannot be appreciated at all. When responding to change a person should not become bitter instead they should view it as room for new opportunities. The poem To a Sad Daughter created by Michael Ondaatje, the father has a tough time letting go of family because his daughter means the world to him; this is significant because it reveals that the father does not realize the all the possible new opportunities it will bring. Thus, letting go of family is harder than it looks. .
Responding to change in a positive manner will release many new chances. The future holds many great possibilities, even more if we are optimistic about the ideas. "When I thought of daughters I wasn't expecting this but I like this more." (12-14). The father at thought of his daughter being a girly girl, liking to go shopping and get manicures done but instead she is more of a tom boy which he loves. He is going to miss his daughter perhaps more than she will miss him. "I like all your faults even your purple moods" (15-16). The father even likes her when she is fuming, gloomy, or irritated. He enjoys her presence whenever. "And if you hear the siren, listen to it. For if you only close your ears only nothing will happens. You will never change." (28-30). The father is trying to give advice to his daughter when he should be taking his very own advice. He will never change if he keeps trying to hold onto the old memories instead of focusing on the new.