Further Up and Further In

Have you ever felt that emptiness within you when you're missing someone or something? Yet perhaps it is mixed with the gratitude of having had that thing or person in your life? If so, you are like the wives and children of Portuguese sailors who would often sail away and never be heard from again. These women and children suffered profoundly in the absence of their husbands and fathers. The Portuguese coined the term, saudade , to describe what that emotion was, a mixture of sadness and happiness, of melancholic longing and gratitude. A difficult translation from Portuguese to English but a sentiment universally felt (in my personal opinion). When my friend first explained to me the word, saudade , I immediately thought of these two quotes: Both A.A. Milne and Alfred Lord Tennyson attempted to capture what it's like to be both happy and sad over the absence of someone or something in your life. Which is a seeming paradox but our human hearts are capable of feeli