Love is the WILL to extend one's self for the purpose of nurturing one's own or another's spiritual growth. Love is as love does … both an intention and an action.
~ Scott Peck
You come to see that suffering is required; and you no more want to avoid it than you want to avoid putting your next foot on the ground when you are walking. In the spiritual path, joy and suffering follow one another like the two feet and you come to a point of not minding which 'foot' is on the ground. You realize on the contrary that it is extremely uncomfortable hopping all the time on the joy foot.