Good Fortune

[michaelboy]

When I was little, I remember lying in bed at night and worrying that I might some day lose parts of my family -- my two remaining grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles. I was convinced that I wouldn't be able to bear such a thing and I felt a desperate need to somehow separate loss from life. Obviously I couldn't, but as a young kid you sometimes think of such things because you have a notion that living is more significant than how you live.



It reminds me of when someone says they refuse to have a pet because of the potential heartbreak in losing them. If you apply this universally, then it is probably better never to have any family or make any friends.

To Old Age

I see in you the estuary that enlarges and spreads itself grandly as it pours in the great sea.

~ From: "Leaves of Grass", Walt Whitman

I'm certain that many of my favorite older people and patients are gone now and I was fortunate to have known all of them.

Comments

[howsmyenglish]

There's this Russian song most Russians know - not because of the song itself, but because of the film it was used in. I just saw that it has passable English subtitles:
https://youtu.be/50CV0C4ox-k?feature=shared

And I used to do that to - to lie awake at night being terrified I might lose one of the people I love.

[michaelboy]

Yes! To have anything, is to always risk losing it - a sometimes difficult lesson of life.

[wayfaringwordhack]

as a young kid you sometimes think of such things because you have a notion that living is more significant than how you live.

This is so true.

I know many people who cut themselves off from relationships--and I have done it myself--because of not wanting to bear the pain of loss or betrayal, but in the end, it is no solution for flourishing.

[michaelboy]

I think we all want to avoid loss and the resultant pain but you're right, without it we cannot flourish.

[keplers_angels]

I've been noticing lately (maybe for years) how the people adjacent to my life, in point of fact, are the people *in* my life.

It is still a miracle to me. A delight.
I say "I love you" so much now.

Adjacent People

[michaelboy]

This made me smile.