“Do not expect anything in return, do not expect your efforts to be appreciated, your genius to be discovered, your love to be understood.” Closing a cycle by Paulo Coelho
There was a book I read once a long time ago that discussed having Solitude vs being lonely and it taught me a great deal on grieving. There is an assumption that we should only grieve when something dies but in actuality we are meant to grieve when we leave a place, person or thing… when the seasons change in our lives, when we break up, move on and build a fresh. It’s at these points in our lives that the thread of our souls have suddenly snapped from their attachments to other souls and we need to give our souls souls a moment to move on.
Despite reading that book and trying to live a life of letting go it still remains a struggle on my part to understand what the quote above says. That I should never do anything expecting something… it just brings about frustration and disappointment. Two things I am very familiar with. Yet the struggle continues.




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August 18, 2008 at 5:12 pm
3N
I have just finished reading 2 of Coelho’s books and I love his work.
I understand this quote to mean that one should be satisfied with his or her own efforts, abilities, life…without expecting others to necessarily acknowledge them.
You have to learn not to be frustrated or disappointed in yourself. If you give your best effort, if you love as you would want to be loved and most importantly if you are truly honest with yourself; then you will find happiness and not need the approval of others in order to be at peace with yourself.