The Meaning of Lost

In the novel, The Luster of Lost Things by Sophie Chen Heller, Walter says, "my ability to see around corners to flashes of the truth made me better at finding things." 

 “It is strange, he says, swallowing with difficulty, “to miss something you never had.”

Sophie Chen Heller pursues lost things throughout the novel. "In the things they look for, parts of people turn clear as glass and you can see into them and what they are made of and how they live, without needing to exchange so many words."

"The more you persist in searching, the more likely you are to stumble across something unexpected."

"Lost things are bridges. They are connections to some other time or place or person or feeling."

"There is no need to worry about becoming lost when the truth is, what’s lost is bound to be found, by the person who stays brave enough to open the eyes and see. The flame twists and turns, and with a single breath I set it free," says Walter.

Dive into the meaning of lost.

         In your pursuit and search what unlikely something have you discovered?

                       Have you missed someone you never had?
                                     
                                  Did you ever find lost's luster?

"How will  you go about finding the thing the nature of which is totally unknown to you?"  

- Meno

What have you found during challenging times?

When the lost appears, let emptiness reveal itself. Write into renewal.

Make Winter Shine

"In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me lay an invincible summer." - Albert Camus

Our life paths jumble us with ups and downs, turns to navigate and corners to investigate.  

Seesaw effects and roller coaster anguish confront us. We must advance toward blind alleys and dark spaces regardless of how we try to avoid them.  





Often jubilation greets us in the strangest moments.

Write about the good and challenging aspects of a winter day. 

Do you need to play in the shadows of sunshine more than the sunshine itself? Move your imagination into both places.  

Balance the seesaw and get into the thrills of a roller coaster on a summer day. 

Pathfinding

No one can build you the bridge on which you, and only you, must cross the river of life. There may be countless trails and bridges and demigods who would gladly carry you across; but only at the price of pawning and forgoing yourself. There is one path in the world that none can walk but you.Where does it lead? Don’t ask, walk.                                    - Friedrich Nietzsche

Nietzsche asked, "How can man know himself? It is a dark, mysterious business: if a hare has seven skins, a man may skin himself seventy times seven times without being able to say, “Now that is truly you; that is no longer your outside.” It is also an agonizing, hazardous undertaking thus to dig into oneself, to climb down toughly and directly into the tunnels of one’s being. Everything bears witness to our being — our friendships and animosities, our glances and handshakes, our memories and all that we forget, our books as well as our pens. For the most important inquiry, however, there is a method."

He continued,

 “What have you truly loved thus far? What has ever uplifted your soul, what has dominated and delighted it at the same time?” Assemble these revered objects in a row before you and perhaps they will reveal a law by their nature and their order: the fundamental law of your very self. Compare these objects, see how they complement, enlarge, outdo, transfigure one another; how they form a ladder on whose steps you have been climbing up to yourself so far; for your true self does not lie buried deep within you, but rather rises immeasurably high above you, or at least above what you commonly take to be your I."

Bridges frame the natural world.  Suspension cables ladder upward for strength.

Bridges show connections instead of blocking views.

Strength reveals potential, adapted in tension and lines.

Bridges teach communication in creative ways.


Answer Nietzsche's questions: “What have you truly loved thus far? What has ever uplifted your soul. What has dominated and delighted it at the same time?”

Cross bridges and climb ladders into possibility. 

Find your path.