Our dreams are luminous, a cast fire upon the world. Morning arrives and that's it. Sunlight darkens the earth.
How many years have slipped through our hands? At least as many as the constellations we still can identify. The quarter moon, like a light skiff, floats out of the mist-remnants Of last night’s hard rain. It, too, will slip through our fingers with no ripple, without us in it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the passage of time and the fleeting nature of life, suggesting that moments vanish like the moon through mist.
In this quote, Charles Wright meditates on the ephemeral nature of time and experiences. He draws a parallel between the years that seemingly slip away unnoticed and the constellations in the night sky, which remain constant even as individual moments fade from memory. The imagery of the quarter moon floating through the mist evokes a sense of beauty coupled with loss, emphasizing that life’s moments, like the moon and rain, can pass without leaving a mark, highlighting the inevitability of time and our transient existence within it.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a reflective speech on life's impermanence at a memorial service.
More from Charles Wright
All quotes →Similar quotes
You don't know. When I'm out there at night I feel close to my own body, I can feel my blood moving, my skin and fingernails, everything, it's like I'm full of electricity and I'm glowing in the dark - I'm on fire almost - I'm burning away into nothing - but it doesn't matter because I know exactly who I am.
Life is unjust and this is what makes it so beautiful. Every day is a gift. Be brave and take hold of it.
We do not change as we grow up. The difference between the child and the adult is that the former doesn't know who he is and the latter does.
At any given moment, we each face a barrage of obligations, often disparate and distinct from what we thought would happen when we woke up. From the tragic to the common to the extraordinary, life refuses to be divvied up into careful slices of time. No technology can manage to overcome the realities of reality.
When a person is born we rejoice, and when they're married we jubilate, but when they die we try to pretend nothing has happened.
Only the person who has experienced light and darkness, war and peace, rise and fall, only that person has truly experienced life.