April 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 4)

O Lord, remember not only men and women of good will, but also those of ill will. But do not remember all the suffering they inflicted on us. Remember the fruits we have borne thanks to this suffering: our comradeship, our humility, our courage, our generosity, the greatness of heart which has grown out of this; and when they come to judgment let all the fruits that we have borne be their forgiveness.

~ Written on a piece of wrapping paper found near the body of a dead child in Ravensbruck where 92,000 women and children died in the Holocaust
suffering
April 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 4)
There is a piece of suffering which is a river that flows through the human condition and is part and parcel of our arising itself. Eckhart Tolle talks about it as the 'collective pain body of humanity.' Conscious awakening does not put a final end to suffering, but rather, allows us to bear it in a way that is luminous, generous, and ultimately sacramental. Through our prayers and our presence, we take our part in bearing the cost of this precious divine finitude, in which and through which infinite love is revealed.

What we do know is that great injustice, cruelty, physical pain, or betrayal, when consciously accepted and generously borne, can give rise to a peculiarly luminous and healing quality of love, and that this love radiates out from the site of the pain as a source of healing and hope for the entire cosmos.
~ Cynthia Bourgeault from 'Conscious Suffering' in Spiritual Practices from the Gurdjieff Work, www.spiritualityandpractice.com/ecourses/course/view/181
Cynthia Bourgeault suffering
April 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 4)
Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true:
That even as we grieved, we grew.
That even as we hurt, we hoped.
That even as we tired, we tried.
~ Amanda Gorman from "The Hill We Climb"
Amanda Gorman The Hill We Climb suffering
April 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 4)
Wisdom comes alone through suffering.
~ Aeschylus
Aeschylus suffering
April 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 4)
In short: who can take away suffering without entering it?
~ Henri J. M. Nouwen in THE WOUNDED HEALER
Henri J. M. Nouwen The Wounded Healer suffering
April 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 4)
Is there suffering upon this new earth? On our earth we can only love with suffering and through suffering. We cannot love otherwise, and we know of no other sort of love.
~ Fyodor Dostoevsky in THE DREAM OF A RIDICULOUS MAN
Fyodor Dostoevsky The Dream Of A Ridiculous Man suffering
April 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 4)
If there is a meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering. Suffering is an ineradicable part of life, even as fate and death. Without suffering and death, human life cannot be complete.
~ Viktor E. Frankl
Viktor E. Frankl suffering
April 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 4)
The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of those depths.
~ Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross suffering
April 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 4)
I see the world being slowly transformed into a wilderness; I hear the approaching thunder that, one day, will destroy us too. I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that everything will change for the better, that this cruelty too shall end, that peace and tranquility will return once more.
~ Anne Frank
Anne Frank suffering
April 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 4)
Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle, the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. suffering
April 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 4)
But in the end, it's only a passing thing. This shadow, even darkness, must pass.
~ J.R.R. Tolkien
J.R.R. Tolkien suffering
April 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 4)

"Peacemakers who sow in peace
raise a harvest of righteousness" (James 3:18)


We lay down our seeds in the dark.
Spring has been exceptionally cold
this year. Reluctant daffodils
have done little to convince me.
But we do the work of the faithful
farmer, rising in the pre-dawn hours.
It is a chosen hiddenness, a subtle
stretching over time, ear bent to listen
to the ground, ready for instruction.
Slow rhythmic movements are best.
Sometimes we simply show up,
holding borrowed pain, applying tears
or not. With a gentle
but demanding attention
to detail, we prepare the soil.
We plant. We wait.

~ Nancy Thomas from "Secret Sowers" in CLOSE TO THE GROUND
Nancy Thomas Close To The Ground suffering
April 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 4)
Vulnerability is not a weakness, a passing indisposition, or something we can arrange to do without, vulnerability is not a choice, vulnerability is the underlying, ever present and abiding undercurrent of our natural state. To run from vulnerability is to run from the essence of our nature, the attempt to be invulnerable is the vain attempt to become something we are not and most especially, to close off our understanding of the grief of others.
~ David Whyte in CONSOLATIONS
David Whyte Consolations suffering
April 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 4)
An experience of collective pain does not deliver us from grief or sadness; it is a ministry of presence. These moments remind us that we are not alone in our darkness and that our broken heart is connected to every heart that has known pain since the beginning of time.
~ Brené Brown in BRAVING THE WILDERNESS
Brené Brown Braving The Wilderness suffering
April 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 4)
There are at least two ways to understand what it means to have our hearts broken. One is to imagine the heart broken into shards and scattered about. The other is to imagine the heart broken open into new capacity. As I stand in the tragic gap between reality and possibility, this small, tight fist of a thing called my heart can break open into greater capacity to hold more of my own and the world's suffering and joy, despair and hope.
~ Parker Palmer in A HIDDEN WHOLENESS
Parker Palmer A Hidden Wholeness suffering
April 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 4)
The problem of the world is that we have forgotten that we belong to each other.
~ Mother Theresa
Mother Theresa suffering
April 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 4)

We are one, after all, you and I, together we suffer, together exist and forever will recreate each other.

~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin suffering
March 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 3)
Survival is the second law of life.
The first is that we are all one.
~ Joseph Campbell in A JOSEPH CAMPBELL COMPANION
Joseph Campbell A Joseph Campbell Companion connection
March 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 3)
In nature we never see anything isolated, but everything in connection with something else which is before it, beside it, under it and over it.
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in CONVERSATIONS OF GOETHE WITH JOHANN PETER ECKERMANN
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Conversations Of Goethe With Johann Peter Eckermann connection
March 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 3)

What seems to be happening at the moment is never the full story of what is really going on. For the honey bee, it is the honey that is important. But the bee is at the same time nature's vehicle for carrying out cross-pollination of the flowers. Interconnectedness is a fundamental principle of nature. Nothing is isolated. Each event connects with others. Things are constantly unfolding on different levels. It's for us to perceive the warp and woof of the Oneness of All as best we can and learn to follow our own threads through the tapestry of life with authenticity and resolve.

~ Jon Kabat-Zinn from WHEREVER YOU GO, THERE YOU ARE
Jon Kabat-Zinn Wherever You Go, There You Are connection
March 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 3)
Love means to learn to look at yourself
The way one looks at distant things
For you are only one thing among many.
And whoever sees that way heals his heart,
Without knowing it, from various ills.
A bird and a tree say to him: Friend
~ Czeslaw Milosz from "Love" in NEW AND COLLECTED POEMS 1931-2001
Czeslaw Milosz New And Collected Poems 1931-2001 connection
March 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 3)
We are knee deep in a river, searching for water. We are part of an invisible river, but we are so distracted by outer things and what we imagine they could mean to us that we lose contact with the source of our own Being. When we are caught in desire, in form, in externals, we are pulled out of ourselves into a fantasy world, a desire world. We lose touch with the invisible river, the waters of life, through our identification with unconscious inner processes and with outer demands.
~ Kabir Helminski in LIVING PRESENCE
Kabir Helminski Living Presence connection
March 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 3)
The earth is leaning sideways
And a song is emerging from the floods
And fires. Urgent tendrils lift toward the sun.
You must be friends with silence to hear.
The songs of the guardians of silence are the most powerful-
They are the most rare.
~ Joy Harjo from "Singing Everything" in AN AMERICAN SUNRISE
Joy Harjo An American Sunrise connection
March 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 3)
Lord, most of what I love
Mistakes itself for nothing.
~ Molly McCully Brown from "Transubstantiation" in THE VIRGINIA STATE COLONY FOR EPILEPTICS AND FEEBLEMINDED
Molly McCully Brown The Virginia State Colony For Epileptics And Feebleminded connection
March 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 3)

What draws Friends together
Does not conform to Laws of Nature.
Form doesn’t know about spiritual closeness.
If a grain of barley approaches a grain of wheat,
An ant must be carrying it. A black ant on black felt.
You can’t see it, but if grains go toward each other,
It’s there.

A hand shifts our birdcages around.
Some are brought closer. Some move apart.
Do not try to reason it out. Be conscious
Of who draws you and who not.

~ Rumi from "The Force of Friendship" in THIS LONGING
Rumi This Longing connection
March 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 3)
We think that by protecting ourselves from suffering, we are being kind to ourselves. The truth is we only become more fearful, more hardened and more alienated. We experience ourselves as being separate from the whole. This separateness becomes like a prison for us—a prison that restricts us to our personal hopes and fears, and to caring only for the people nearest to us. Curiously enough, if we primarily try to shield ourselves from discomfort, we suffer. Yet, when we don't close off, when we let our hearts break, we discover our kinship with all beings.
~ Pema Chodron in WHEN THINGS FALL APART
Pema Chodron When Things Fall Apart connection
March 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 3)
If the world is a temple, then our enemies are sacred, too. The ability to respect the outsider is probably the litmus test of true seeing. It doesn't even stop with human beings and enemies of the least of the brothers and sisters. It moves to frogs and pansies and weeds. EVERYTHING becomes enchanting with true sight...All we can do is to participate.
~ Richard Rohr from EVERYTHING BELONGS
Richard Rohr Everything Belongs connection
March 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 3)
To acknowledge our ancestors means we are aware that we did not make ourselves, that the line stretches all the way back, perhaps to God; or to Gods. We remember them because it is an easy thing to forget: that we are not the first to suffer, rebel, fight, love and die.
~ Alice Walker in HER BLUE BODY EVERYTHING WE KNOW
Alice Walker Her Blue Body Everything We Know connection
March 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 3)

When you love someone, the best thing you can offer is your presence. How can you love if you are not there?

~ Thich Nhat Hanh in NO DEATH, NO FEAR
Thich Nhat Hanh No Fear, No Death connection
February 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 2)
It could take a tribe
to find the way back
to what you love.
A day's wandering
could become a season,
then another. At times
it may all signal chaos.
But take heart.
Sometimes
there is intelligence
even in the crumbling
of things.
~ Steve Godwin from "Fortune" in FINDING HEART
Steve Godwin Finding Heart heart
February 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 2)
Human spirit is the ability to face the uncertainty of the future with curiosity and optimism. It is the belief that problems can be solved, differences resolved. It is a type of confidence, and it is fragile.
~ Bernard Beckett
Bernard Beckett heart
February 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 2)
The creek is wearing its usual disguise,
braiding and unbraiding itself
through narrows and pools as it pleases,
proving its force by taking the path
of least resistance, taking apart the stone
one grain at a time.

If you were water, what part of your will
would you be willing to dissolve?
Which of your ways would you have to learn
not to want to have?
And how, if you always ran downstream,
would your desire know how to live?
~ Steve Godwin from "If You Were Water" in FINDING HEART
Steve Godwin Finding Heart heart
February 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 2)
We may encounter many defeats, but we must not be defeated. It may even be necessary to encounter the defeat, so that we can know who we are. So that we can see, oh, that happened, and I rose. I did get knocked down flat in front of the whole world, and I rose.
~ Maya Angelou from an interview in Psychology Today, February 2009
Maya Angelou heart
February 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 2)
Don't grieve. Anything you lose comes around in another form.
~ Rumi
Rumi heart
February 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 2)
...Quick dance,
shuffle of losses and leaves,
only the things I didn't do
crackle after the blazing dies.
~ Naomi Shihab Nye from "Burning the Old Year" in WORDS UNDER THE WORDS
Naomi Shihab Nye Words Under The Words heart
February 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 2)
What if dying weren't a bad thing? Caroline's death had left me with a great and terrible gift: how to live in a world where loss, some of it unbearable, is as common as dust or moonlight. And then, finally, unwittingly, acceptance wraps itself around your heart.
~ Gail Caldwell in LET'S TAKE THE LONG WAY HOME
Gail Caldwell Let's Take The Long Way Home heart
February 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 2)
Will you be my refuge,
My haven in the storm,
Will you keep the embers warm,
When my fire's all but gone?
Will you remember, And bring me sprigs of rosemary,
Be my sanctuary,
'Til I can carry on, Carry on.
~ Carrie Newcomer from the song "Sanctuary"
Carrie Newcomer heart
February 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 2)

There is life without love. It is not worth a bent penny, or a scuffed shoe...When you hear, a mile away and still out of sight, the churn of the water as it begins to swirl and roil, fretting around the sharp rocks—when you hear that unmistakable pounding—when you feel the mist on your mouth and sense ahead the embattlement, the long fall plunging and steaming—then row, row for your life toward it.

~ Mary Oliver from "West Wind" in NEW AND SELECTED POEMS, VOL. 2
Mary Oliver Vol. 2, New And Selected Poems heart
February 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 2)
Those are red letter days in our lives when we meet people who thrill us like a fine poem, people whose handshake is brimful of unspoken sympathy, and whose sweet, rich natures impart to our eager, impatient spirits a wonderful restfullness which, in is essence, is divine...The perplexities, irritations, and worries that have absorbed us pass like unpleasant dreams, and we wake to see with new eyes and hear with new ears the beauty and harmony of God's real world. The solemn nothings that fill our everyday life blossom suddenly into bright possibilities.
~ Helen Keller in THE STORY OF MY LIFE
Helen Keller The Story Of My Life heart
February 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 2)

Lesson of the moment: I am not a little autonomous being, deciding this or that about my own life without interference. I am a thread in a tapestry of people.

~ Deborah Good in LONG AFTER I'M GONE: A FATHER-DAUGHTER MEMOIR
Deborah Good Long After I'm Gone: A Father-daughter Memoir heart
February 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 2)
A fragment of fence long trampled
by those who needed most to pass.
Pilgrim, immigrant, refugee,
all journeys severe, all made in longing.
Most cross over what's already breached,
but the step is long and touches down
In a world that takes heart
in the breaking of what divides.
~ Steve Godwin from "What Divides" in FINDING HEART
Steve Godwin Finding Heart heart
February 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 2)
Sometimes I can sit under a tree
looking into the spaces
between branches,
And wait on the silence...
~ Steve Godwin from "Just Another Song" in FINDING HEART
Steve Godwin Finding Heart heart
February 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 2)

There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.

~ C.S. Lewis in THE COLLECTED LETTERS OF C.S. LEWIS
C.S. Lewis The Collected Letters Of C.s. Lewis heart
January 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 1)
You are not obliged to be beautiful
You don't have to shine.
Blooming will happen when it happens.
If you can be still for a moment
you might notice that
the roots that feed you
are still reaching silently through the dark.
~ Lynn Ungar in "November" from THESE DAYS: POEMS FOR THE PANDEMIC AGE
Lynn Ungar These Days: Poems For The Pandemic Age forgiveness
January 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 1)
I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded; not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night.
~ Khaled Hosseini in THE KITE RUNNER
Khaled Hosseini The Kite Runner forgiveness
January 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 1)
If there is anywhere on earth a lover of God who is always kept safe, I know nothing of it, for it was not shown to me. But this was shown: that in falling and rising again we are always kept in that same precious love.
~ Julian of Norwich
Julian of Norwich forgiveness
January 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 1)
...there are at least two ways to understand what it means to have our hearts broken. One is to imagine the heart broken into shards and scattered about—a feeling most of us know, and a fate we would like to avoid. The other is to imagine the heart broken open into new capacity—a process that is not without pain but one that many of us would welcome. As I stand in the tragic gap between reality and possibility, this small, tight fist of a thing called my heart can break open into greater capacity to hold more of my own and the world's suffering and joy, despair and hope.
~ Parker Palmer in A HIDDEN WHOLENESS: THE JOURNEY TOWARD AN UNDIVIDED LIFE
Parker Palmer A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward An Undivided Life forgiveness
January 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 1)
Our apprenticeship with sorrow has led us here, to the very edge of culture and the wild, uncertain times we are in...We are being called upon to gather the wisdom we have found on our long walk with sorrow and make it available for others. We must enter the healing ground as elders who have been seasoned by grief, recognizing we carry soul medicine for those who are beginning their apprenticeship. Perhaps now we can begin to build a new culture, one that honors soul and the soul of the world.
~ Francis Weller in THE WILD EDGE OF SORROW
Francis Weller The Wild Edge Of Sorrow forgiveness
January 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 1)
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in
~ Leonard Cohen from "Anthem"
Leonard Cohen forgiveness
January 2022 (Vol. XXXV, No. 1)
Someone I loved once gave me
a box full of darkness.

It took me years to understand
that this, too, was a gift.
~ Mary Oliver in "The Uses of Sorrow" from THIRST
Mary Oliver Thirst forgiveness