Zielschmerz is “the exhilarating dread of finally pursuing a lifelong dream, which requires you to put your true abilities out there to be tested on the open savannah, no longer protected inside the terrarium of hopes and delusions that you created in kindergarten and kept sealed as long as you could, only to break in case of emergency.”
Zielschmerz is not a real word except in the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows a fascinating collection of words for obscure, often fleeting emotions that we all have at one point or another but have no common term to facilitate understanding them or discussing with others (i.e. Exulansis—Sense of frustration when you realize that you are trying to talk about an important experience, but other people are unable to understand or relate to it, so you give up).
It takes courage to put our dreams into action; new beginnings often require we leave something familiar and comfortable behind; to grasp the rung above we must release the rung below.
Closing Quote:
“Come to the edge,” he said.
“We can’t, we’re afraid!” they responded.
“Come to the edge,” he said.
“We can’t, we will fall!” they responded.
“Come to the edge,” he said.
And so they came.
And he pushed them.
And they flew.”
– Guillaume Apollinaire, 1880-1918
As always, I share what I most want/need to learn. – Nathan S. Collier
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