The Reason You Are Here
Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won’t either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself you tasted as many as you could.
—Louise Erdrich
Thank you, Kind Over Matter, for this sweet, joyous reminder!
[Post image: Jump for Joy! by shirleybnz on stock.xchng]
Lindsey
Adore both that photograph and Erdrich’s lines, which live in one of my well-loved quote books as well … So much truth. xoxo
Elissa
The quote sounds exactly like you, Lindsey! xo
Connie
I have been broken, betrayed, left, hurt; and death has brushed all too near. But I have not nearly tasted as many as I could! Better days lie ahead, I am working to ensure.
Elissa
I’m with you, Connie. Isn’t it grand we can try again? To taste life, that is? xo
bob
sweet
Anna
This is beautiful, Elissa! Your blog is an oasis.