With a cold"--she spoke evenly, lowering her eyes a little--"now is the hardest time. Maybe even harder than dying. But this is probably as bad as it can get. You might come to fear the next time you get a cold; it will be as bad as this, but if you just hold steady, it won't be. For the rest of your life. That's how it works. You could take the negative view and live in fear: Will it happen again? But it won't hurt so much if you just accept it as a part of life." With that she looked up at me, smiling.
Banana YoshimotoTruly great people emit a light that warms the hearts of those around them. When that light has been put out, a heavy shadow of despair descends.
Banana YoshimotoBut I have my life, Iโm living it. Itโs twisted, exhausting, uncertain, and full of guilt, but nonetheless, thereโs something there.
Banana YoshimotoOnce you've recognized your own limits, you've raised yourself to a higher level of being, since you're closer to the real you.
Banana YoshimotoTo the extent that I had come to understand that despair does not necessarily result in annihilation, that one can go on as usual in spite of it, I had become hardened. Was this what it means to be an adult, to live with ugly ambiguities? I didn't like it, but it made it easier to go on.
Banana Yoshimoto