Is obsession something good or should we try to avoid it?
Obsession : idea or thought that continually preoccupies or intrudes on a person’s mind
– Oxford dictionary
It looks as if its a source of both pain and pleasure:
Color is my day-long obsession, joy and torment.
– Claude Monet
It could wake up all your energy! And make you feel alive:
Pain can be vitalising; it gives intensity in the place of vagueness and emptiness. If we don’t suffer, how do we know that we live?
-Sebastian Horsley
Obsession seems to relate to the very essence of one’s spirit, and don’t you want to stay true to yourself?
Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.
– Franz Kafka
Obsession feels like intensity, but this doesn’t seem to be the case all the time; in fact, it could be feel quite gentle and fragile:
I choose to love you in silence, for in silence, I find no rejection.
I choose to love you in loneliness, for in loneliness, no one owns you but me.
I choose to adore you from a distance, for distance will shield me from pain.
I choose to kiss you in the wind, for the wind is gentler than my lips.
I choose to hold you in my dreams, for in my dreams, you have no end.
-Rumi
The essence of obsession appears to be not so much an intensity, but the perseverance; the faith into one’s chosen endeavour; the not-giving-up.
It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.
– Confucius