ut in my own life, as I grew older, I realized I had only questions. For a long time this made me feel vulnerable and afraid, and then suddenly, as though I had reached an emotional puberty, it made me feel vulnerable and comfortable... What was more important was that I finally realized that making sense of my life meant, in part, accepting the shifting nature of its sands... A kind of earthquake in the center of my life shook everything up, and left me to rearrange the pieces... As the aftershocks reverberate, I have had to approach some simple tasks in new ways... Looking back at my past. Loving my husband. Raising my children. Being a woman. It is no accident that each of these tasks is couched in the present participle, that lovely part of speech that simply goes on and on and on. Oddly enough, what I have learned... is that life is not so much about beginnings and endings as it is about going on and on and on. It’s about muddling through the middle. That is what I’m doing now. Muddling through the middle. -Anna Quindlen
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Midweek reminder: Life is not so much about beginnings and endings
ut in my own life, as I grew older, I realized I had only questions. For a long time this made me feel vulnerable and afraid, and then suddenly, as though I had reached an emotional puberty, it made me feel vulnerable and comfortable... What was more important was that I finally realized that making sense of my life meant, in part, accepting the shifting nature of its sands... A kind of earthquake in the center of my life shook everything up, and left me to rearrange the pieces... As the aftershocks reverberate, I have had to approach some simple tasks in new ways... Looking back at my past. Loving my husband. Raising my children. Being a woman. It is no accident that each of these tasks is couched in the present participle, that lovely part of speech that simply goes on and on and on. Oddly enough, what I have learned... is that life is not so much about beginnings and endings as it is about going on and on and on. It’s about muddling through the middle. That is what I’m doing now. Muddling through the middle. -Anna Quindlen
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lovely
ReplyDeleteI know, right? For you. xo
DeleteLove this... (It's also a bit reassuring that I am not the only one terribly fond of the "...")
ReplyDeleteSometimes I feel like my writing is held together by ellipses... (much like my grandfather used duct tape and baling wire to hold together just about everything on his farm!)
DeleteThought you might enjoy these sentiments. Anna seems to strike that common female human connection chord so well...
This is so interesting. I have always thought about life as a series of peaks, almost 180 degrees- up and down, no middle. I'm learning now it's not about that at all. It's a whole new way of seeing things... and a little bit disconcerting when I'm used to just EXTREMES.
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