Suffering a loss

“Once, an elderly general practitioner consulted me because of his severe depression. He could not overcome the loss of his wife who had died two years before and whom he had loved above all else. 

Now, how can I help him? What should I tell him? Well, I refrained from telling him anything but instead confronted him with the question, “What would have happened, Doctor, if you had died first, and your wife would have had to survive you?” 

“Oh,” he said, “for her this would have been terrible; how she would have suffered!” 

Whereupon I replied, “You see, Doctor, such a suffering has been spared her, and it was you who have spared her this suffering — to be sure, at the price that now you have to survive and mourn her.” 

He said no word but shook my hand and calmly left my office. In some way, suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning, such as the meaning of a sacrifice.”

~ Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

Source

Fire of love

Love is like a fire: if it's to keep burning, both lovers need to keep putting firewood into it.

Beauty of people

Photos: Unsplash

Teaching yourself

Our responsibility as adults is to teach ourselves what we weren't taught as children, and to give ourselves all the love, respect, care, and consideration that we weren't given as children.

Love

Loved ones come in many shapes and sizes, but love comes in only one - Universal.

Being someone's number one

As years go by, and people grow networks of closeness around them, it becomes more and more important to have those with you for whom you will be number one priority, no matter what happens.