In the time between this breath and the next, you pass all your days and all your years.
From The Anticipation of Loss, one of 296 sayings written by John Sarris over thirty years.
From Alfred’s journal
Switch fell asleep on the journal this afternoon, flat out on the open page with his tail over the gutter, and I could not get a pen under him without waking him, so I sat on the fence post and watched him breathe. For years I thought of a life as a long road with the far end in fog, which is a thing you believe when you are young and in a hurry. But the little rise and fall of him was the whole of it, over and over, and nothing was waiting at the end of the yard. In the time between this breath and the next, you pass all your days and all your years. He woke up, looked at me, and went back to sleep, and the light moved maybe a hand's width down the fence. I do not know yet whether that is a comfort or the opposite, and I have had all afternoon.
He reads what you tell him and writes a page of his journal back, with a few of these chosen for you. It costs nothing and asks for nothing.
Have it on something
More like it
- When you meet the same situation twice, you haven’t met it once.
- The first step of the day leaves the largest footprint.
- You can neither lose what is precious to you nor keep the box it came in.
- You can fly with the wind or be carried away by it.
- The early bird gets a moment to itself.
- It's hard to say thank you when thank you means goodbye.