The writer Goethe observed that “you must live life in the all. Then you will be happy.”
One of the challenges of life is deciding if we will truly open ourselves to all of life’s experiences – the heart-wrenching and the joyful, the unexpected setbacks and the blessings, the grotesque and the stunning beauty.
Goethe’s insight was every experience offers insights that we can carry into the next experience. If we try to parse life into slices of our own choosing, Goethe believed, we’ll only end up feeling frustrated, anxious and fearful. On the other hand, happiness accompanies us if we choose to “live life in the all.“
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Thank you to Maria Popova and her book The Figuring for bringing Goethe’s quote to my attention.
On Emotions 