“That sense of loss is exactly what we must anticipate, prepare for, and cherish to the last of our days; for it is only our heartbreak that finally refutes all that is ephemeral in love.”
– A Gentleman in Moscow, Amor Towles
I’ve been wrestling with the theory of heartbreak of late, thinking through patterns and loves with the blessing of time and space from heartbreak itself (as if there’s such a thing as space from heartbreak! doh). I then attended a yoga workshop with renowned teacher Seane Corn, who told a story about her father dying and telling her in his final days that—paraphrasing—she’s lucky to be so sad, because it meant she loved so big. She writes elsewhere more eloquently:
“… I underestimated the intensity of this moment. It is beyond hard. The pain I feel is worse than I imagined and my grief feels palpable. But to grieve this hard can only mean that in this lifetime I got to love that big…and for that I am grateful.” – Seane Corn
Loving so deeply is scary. It just might last forever. But … it is essentially the meaning of life.