The quote also resonates on an intimate level, because individual lives are filled with recurring inner seasons. Confidence gives way to doubt, ambition to fatigue, grief to acceptance, and then, sometimes unexpectedly, back to grief again. What feels like regression may actually be cyclical healing. Psychologists who study bereavement often note that loss is not processed in a tidy line; instead, emotions return in waves, sometimes triggered by memory, anniversaries, or ordinary routines.
Seen this way, Brooks’s remark can be quietly comforting. If discouragement comes around again, that does not mean failure; it may simply mean that human feeling is rhythmic. Likewise, motivation often returns after periods of stagnation. The self is not frozen in one state, and recognizing that recurring pattern can replace panic with patience. [...]
