求之不得

看小說突然看到這短短一句求之不得，若有所悟。

實在是平凡一句成語，我這般中文退步的人也懂。只是像很多聽慣了話，不會去多想。

這世上有一些東西，我們求了一生，也是未曾得到的。

The most recent book I finished is Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love.  It was one of many titles on my Secret Santa list, one recommended by many, but not one I was particularly excited about.

I thought of it as somewhat of a self-help book, a genre I was not particularly fond of.  I am very much aware of the fact that I have many confusions in life, but I vehemently resisted the idea of letting other people give me a laundry list of things to do to make it better.  But I’ll try anything once, I thought.

But it wasn’t at all what I imagined.  To those who haven’t read the synopsis, Gilbert describes her journey through Italy, India, and Indonesia, where she searched for good food, strong faith, and simple companionship.  But it was not what she found, or the methods she used to look for those things, that appealed to me.  Mostly it was her honesty, the complete admission of all the things that haunted her.  She described it in such witty and funny tidbits, acknowledging that these things that she didn’t want in her life existed, and continued to exist.  Then she described how she controlled them.  Not getting rid of them, just controlling them.

I found it somewhat difficult to read this book without being distracted.  Often I would read a paragraph that would make my mind wander into my own life, reflecting on the times when I thought of the same thing.

I think, in the end, we are all searching for the same thing.  A comfortable life.  Something to believe in.  Someone to love.