Our task in life – whether it is short or long, whether it is heavy with sorrows or light with blessings, or, like most lives, a combination of the two – is to find the path that conveys us toward our true destination. Neither fame nor riches nor great achievements will cross with us to the other side. Resentments, bitterness, anger, and regrets will not serve us, though many cling to them as if to gold; to carry them with us would be hell indeed. Either we must learn to let go or be stripped of all that weakens our capacity to love with single hearts. It is less painful to let go. Death will finish the job we have left incomplete.

ROBERT ELLSBERG
FROM THE SAINTS’ GUIDE TO HAPPINESS: EVERYDAY WISDOM FROM THE LIVES OF THE SAINTS (NORTH POINT PRESS, 2003).