Why is it that we always want what we don't have? Why do we mourn lost loves, lost loved ones, and those who have left us? Why do we pine after what was never ours in the first place? It is not rational to expect that our loved ones will live forever, or even that they will outlive us. It is only rational to make the most of the time we have.
“So should it be with persons; if you kiss your child, or brother, or friend . . . you must remind yourself that you love a mortal, and that nothing that you love is your very own; it is given you for the moment, not forever nor inseparably, but like a fig or a bunch of grapes at the appointed season of the year, and if you long for it in winter you are a fool. So too if you long for your son or your friend, when it is not given you to have him, know that you are longing for a fig in winter time.” – Epictetus
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