Remember your personal demons should be afraid of you, because you are their home, their food, and as you heal, their executioner.
You cannot die of grief, though it feels as if you can. A heart does not actually break, though sometimes your chest aches as if it is breaking. Grief dims with time. It is the way of things. There comes a day when you smile again, and you feel like a traitor. How dare I feel happy. How dare I be glad in a world where my father is no more. And then you cry fresh tears, because you do not miss him as much as you once did, and giving up your grief is another kind of death.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Grief is a painful emotion that gradually lessens with time, making it difficult to reconcile moments of happiness after loss.
This quote expresses the deep complexities of dealing with grief and the emotional turmoil that comes with losing a loved one. It highlights the truth that while grief feels unbearable and intense, it eventually diminishes over time, leading to moments of happiness that can evoke guilt for having moved on. The speaker captures the conflicting feelings of remembering a lost loved one while trying to embrace life again, emphasizing that letting go of grief can feel like losing them all over again.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared at a memorial service to remind attendees of the healing nature of time.
More from Laurell K. Hamilton
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Often the deep valleys of our PRESENT will be UNDERSTOOD only by LOOKING BACK on them from the mountains of our FUTURE experience. Often we can’t see the LORD’S HAND in our lives until long after the trials have passed. Often the most difficult times of our lives are ESSENTIAL building blocks that form the FOUNDATION of our CHARACTER and pave the way to FUTURE opportunity, understanding, and happiness.
Since you get more joy out of giving joy to others, you should put a good deal of thought into the happiness that you are able to give.
I would like to believe when I die that I have given myself away like a tree that sows seed every spring and never counts the loss, because it is not loss, it is adding to future life. It is the tree's way of being. Strongly rooted perhaps, but spilling out its treasure on the wind.
When government - in pursuit of good intentions - tries to rearrange the economy, legislate morality, or help special interests, the cost come in inefficiency, lack of motivation, and loss of freedom. Government should be a referee, not an active player.
Good heavens, of what un costly material is our earthly happiness composed... if we only knew it. What incomes have we not had from a flower, and how unfailing are the dividends of the seasons.
Happiness is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing nor that but simply growth, We are happy when we are growing.