Nothing Gold Can Stay
Accepting the inevitability of loss produces a richer, deeper form of happiness
Instead of starting your week with deadlines and stress, how about a lovely poem from Robert Frost, on the inevitability of loss and change:
Nothing Gold Can Stay
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
This poem seems, at first, to have a hopeless tone.
But I find, again and again, that accepting the inevitability of loss and change unlocks a richer, deeper form of happiness: a savoring of the present, and a willingness to find and embrace future gains.
(This is really what my book, BITTERSWEET, was all about. And I’m considering these themes all over again now, as my husband Ken and I find ourselves months away from an “empty nest”. Right now I feel pretty calm and optimistic about this change - I’ll let you know what it’s actually like, in September!)
This is not to say that life doesn’t throw us catastrophic losses whose arrival we must mourn. But life does reconstitute itself, continually, in new forms; and the challenge is to open ourselves to these new forms - even when we don’t welcome them.
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You know I always love to hear from you:
What in your life feels “golden” (and perhaps fleeting) right now — and are you savoring it fully, while it’s still here?
What “new form” might life be asking you to welcome, even if you didn’t choose it?
What has “not stayed” in your life—and what did its passing teach you?
Please do share!
I decided the best present I could give to myself on my 83 rd Birthday is a companion dog…as I searched through the rescue dogs, it brought to mind the losses of immigrants of war , those in our country being deported…all those without homes. Weeks went by…and then I read about a special needs little dog , not quite 2 years, who was going to be euthanized, but was hoping someone may give him a home with love and care… I have always been a caregiver , from the age of 5 years, actually. So, my sweet husband and I went to pick him up. We have had him for 3 weeks now, and have , the 3 of us , connected in a “special needs” way. We don’t know what the future holds , but we know the present moment is filled with patient, loving moments that grab our hearts and give an abundance of Gold! Thank you for this beautiful Poem.
Having just turned 73 (interesting term that we use .."turned"... Turning into another phase of life while leaving the former), I feel a sense of loss frequently as I continue on this path of aging. Losing everything that we tend to hold onto in our youth and feeling the reality of mortality in a much deeper way...I feel the bittersweetness of it all, if I may borrow that word.... And gratitude, mixed with a lot of tears, for each moment, each morning I wake up, each random act of kindness or smile from a stranger, each breath I take, each tear that I shed. I feel alone much of the time with these feelings, yet also connected to others as we are all on this path. I find myself coming face to face with all the issues I have carried in my life, and see that self-forgiveness is one of the final tasks that I face. To come face to face with our humanity, our flaws, our regrets... And still forgive and accept... To find that that elusive inner peace... To come full circle where we realize that the love we've been seeking is from inside ourselves.... That gold has been inside us all along.