Decades and decades ago, I ran across a scrap of paper (post move-out in a vacant apartment), evidently a portion of a discarded letter. I could not be sure because it was only a fragment of a longer document, but it seemed to be a eulogy to a lost love. One of the few complete sentences visible contained the phrase “…by fearing the worst, I destroyed the best.”
I’ve never forgotten those words; there was a sadness, a sense of needless loss and pain that has always stayed with me. I’d always been a radiant optimist; I endeavor to look for and call out to the best in all I meet; reading those words further strengthened that resolve.
Fear causes us to build barriers; anticipating pain, we create what we fear. Fear leads us away from wisdom; letting our fears have the loudest voice is the ultimate form of self-sabotage, the tragic irony is that it is then we who most betray ourselves, not others.
Closing Quotes:
“Love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.” – Kahlil Gibran, 1883-1931, The Prophet
“For one human being to love another: that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks… it is work, day labor, handwork.” – Rainer Maria Rilke, 1875-1926, Letters to a Young Poet
“To cheat oneself out of love is the most terrible deception; it is an eternal loss for which there is no reparation, either in time or in eternity.” – Søren Kierkegaard, 1813-1855, Works of Love
“Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don’t know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of withering’s, of tarnishing’s.” – Anaïs Nin, 1931–1974, Diaries
As always, I share what I most want and need to learn. – Nathan S. Collier
Note: Every effort has been made to properly source any 3rd person material. I am, however, a voracious reader. If anyone finds any unattributed material, pls let me know asap and I will be delighted to give credit where credit is due.
“All intelligent thoughts have already been thought; what is necessary is only to try to think them again.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749-1832
