Of abstentions and sacrifices

I have always been one of those who gives more importance to words than to images. In my case Instagram is an excuse to tell stories, and to read, to listen to, others' stories.

A recent post prompted me to think about the small and big abstentions or sacrifices in my life, and from there to the meaning I ascribe to that word.

The way I see it, a sacrifice does not consist in refraining from having a vermouth or eating a pizza and deciding to go to bed very early to be able to practice at dawn as always the following morning. That is simply not doing something I like in order to be able to do something else I also like. It is a pure choice of opportunities = I'd rather not say priorities.

A true sacifice would be to stop doing something I like because of some obligation that bothers me, because I cannot afford it or because I must do something else I do not like or that does not satisfy me. For the rest I am quite pragmatic: if I do not lose anything in return, it cannot be a sacrifice.

That said, I am aware that this is a very personal matter and also that I have reached a point in life in which, summing up past experiences, my concept of sacrifice might be different.