Anyone who has lost something they thought was theirs forever finally comes to realise that nothing really belongs to them.

The line frames loss as a hard-earned lesson in impermanence. By linking bereavement or separation to a shift in worldview, it suggests that what we call “possession” is often an illusion sustained by habit and desire. The quote’s force lies in its paradox: only after something is taken away do we see that it was never fully “ours” in the first place—people, opportunities, status, even identities are contingent and changeable. Read this way, the statement is less nihilistic than liberating: accepting non-ownership can reduce fear, jealousy, and clinging, making gratitude and presence more possible. It echoes spiritual traditions that treat attachment as a source of suffering.