Sunday, March 01, 2009

In certain natures

"In certain natures the deepest joy has always something of melancholy in it, a presentiment, a fleeting sadness, a feeling without a name."

--Thomas Bailey Aldrich, "A Struggle for Life," 1867

1 comment:

Koona said...

Oh, how true. Could it be the sickening anticipation of nostalgia? Because always during those most beautiful moments, you want it to go on and on forever, yet you know that it will soon be a memory; if death is separation, a kind of death of the moment. And you are preparing yourself to draw on that memory to relive that precious time, and it's painful because you tire at times of both hope and what has been, longing for the Eternal Now. Yet you wouldn't want to trade this sadness for anything, because it intimately links you with the significance of what was experienced. And it was significant because it was so personal and you knew it was yours to cherish always. The fact that beauty hurts makes it more real, more possessible.