No man (one) is an island
But these thoughts: each of us are responsible for our own happiness, and, our sadness is ours and ours alone, fills me with such sorrow for myself and all the other islands in this world that I could not go a moment longer keeping that sorrow to myself.
Like the crashing waves hitting the islands shoreline, we have to try and share our sorrows. Dilutes the situation. :-) TFx
ReplyDeleteI did feel better after I posted this, and now that you've sent a splash back my way, even better. :)
ReplyDeleteRead Desiderata, Dar. It is so inspiring and always makes me feel better when I feel like a windswept, wave battered island.
ReplyDeleteAnnie, thank-you for the reading suggestion; I'll look it up. Do you think it will have the same positive affect if the wind sweeping and wave battering comes from within and not from without?
ReplyDeleteI hope the waves just become ripples.
ReplyDeleteDesiderata is like healing for the soul, Dar.
ReplyDelete'If' by rudyard kipling
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If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master,
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
That's an awful lot of ifs....
ReplyDeleteUltimately a true fact of life. But human connections can dilute and distil sadness - not all of it, all the time, but enough.
ReplyDeleteSpread a little happiness and all that:-)
Hey Lane; All my life I hoped that my feeling alone, like an island wasn't true. I've spent my life in the pursuit of bridging the gap that I felt, thinking that it was a good thing not only for myself but for others as well. But as adults we are suppose to rely only on ourselves, for our happiness, as well as for our sorrow. No one wants the responsibility of either. If you tell someone that they are responsible for either they become concerned or frightened and then pull away. If you tell someone you need them because what they previously gave freely was something you needed, and your relationship with them fills that need, the same thing happens, and they no longer give the things they once gave freely. Everything changes, and you are alone again, once more.
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