The path of suffering is a lonely path.
Affliction arises; story is created around the pain.
Once entered, it is difficult to depart as
thoughts dance in a loop—diminish our resolve,
suck our energy, our creativity, our love.
A point of choice awakens in our seeking:
we find a door that offers an exit from this diminishment
of heart and mind, or we stay locked inside, feeling
tied to thoughts that wound the soul.
Are we willing to look within the pain?
Endure the weight of what is asked of us?
Bear the needed change required to release us?
Now, that is the mystery. That is the unknown.
Our response dictates our tomorrow
as we pray for you and for me:
May we all be freed from our suffering.
“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
“The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love and to be greater than our suffering.”
-Ben Okri
“Suffering isn’t ennobling, recovery is.”
-Christiaan Barnard