Among writers, if you don't have a therapist, it's like saying you don't keep a journal or use the thesaurus. It's a natural accompaniment.
Amy TanRead
And I think now that fate is shaped half by expectation, half by inattention. But somehow, when you lose something you love, faith takes over. -Rose
Interpretation
What this quote means
Fate is influenced by our expectations and lack of attention, and losing something dear can lead to a strengthened faith.
This quote suggests that our expectations and attentiveness significantly shape our fate. It also speaks to the human experience of loss, indicating that when we lose something or someone we love, it is often replaced by a deeper sense of faith, guiding us through our difficulties and leading us to new possibilities.
Themes
FateExpectationInattentionLossFaith
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech about overcoming loss.
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Even if I had expected it, even if I had known what I was going to do with my life, it would have knocked the wind out of me. When something that violent hits you, you can't help but lose your balance and fall. And after you pick yourself up, you realize you can't trust anybody to save you- not your husband, not your mother, not God. So what can you do to stop yourself from tilting and falling all over again?
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And for all those years, we never talked about the disaster at the recital or my terrible accusations afterward at the piano bench. All that remained unchecked, like a betrayal that was now unbreakable. So I never found a way to ask her why she had hoped something so large that failure was inevitable. And even worse, I never asked her what frightened me the most: Why had she given up hope?
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