Rest in the Breath - David Whyte

Rest is the conversation between what we love to do and
how we love to be.  To rest is to give up on the already
exhausted will as the prime motivator of endeavor, with its
endless outward need to reward itself through established goals.
To rest is to give up on worrying and fretting and the sense that
there is something wrong with the world unless we are there to
put it right; to rest is to fall back literally and figuratively from
outer targets, and shift.....to an inner state of natural exchange.

The template of natural exchange is the breath, the autonomic
giving and receiving that forms the basis and the measure of
life itself.  We are rested when we are living [that] exchange...

In rest is the sense of stopping, of giving up on what we've been
doing or how we have been being.  It is the sense of slowly coming
home...

Deep in the primal exchange of the breath, is the give and take,
the blessing and the being blessed and the ability to delight
in both.  In rest there is a sense of presence, a delight in and
anticipation of the world and all of its forms [in which]
receiving and responding occur in one spontaneous movement.

A deep experience of rest is a perspective from which we are
able to perceive the outer specific forms of our work [and life]
and our relationships whilst being nourished by the shared
foundational gift of the breath itself.

Rested, we are ready for the world,
but not held hostage by it...

David Whyte

Excerpts from a writing called "Rest"
From the book: CONSOLATIONS

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Embrace The Day...

Rest, Dear Heart, Rest...

Embrace the day with Rest,
with clarity, with ease of mind...

Feel the warm, fluid rhythm
of Life around you;
upholding you,

carrying you
through the day,
landing you safely
on evening's shore,
through the twilight
and into the night...
And out of the darkness
a shining light...

Rest, Dear Heart, Rest...

Mystic Meandering
Nov. 29, 2018

~

Photo - Embracing the Day Mandala Art
Mystic Meandering

The Mandala Art was done as part of an "8 Day Challenge"
I did back in 2018
presented by
Donna Iona Drozda

She is currently doing an online series of video presentations called:
Exploring the Creative Energy Levels here.

Reminding me that creativity also brings harmony and balance to
body, mind and soul...

~

"Dance and Endure what comes to meet you on the path."

Donna Iona Drozda

~

"We must be willing to let go of the life we've planed, so as to
have the life that's waiting for us."

Joseph Campbell

 

Collision - May Sarton

For a long time now, every meeting with another human being
has been a collision. I feel too much, sense too much, am
exhausted by the reverberations after even the simplest
conversation.  But the deep collision is and has been with my
tormenting and tormented self [mind]....
I hope to break through into the rough rocky depths,
to the matrix itself.

May Sarton
from - The Journal of a Solitude

with thanks to Whiskey River

~

It may be silent here, but in the back of my mind is
 a clamor of human voices, too many needs, hopes, fears.
I hardly sit still without being haunted by the "undone."
I often feel exhausted...  How to summon the vitality
needed?  Life requires the power to endure constant adversity.

May Sarton
from - The Journal of a Solitude

~

[It is] never a waste of time to lie down and rest even
for a couple of hours.  It is there that images float up
[insights, awarenesses, creativity]

May Sarton
from - The Journal of a Solitude

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

The Solace of Solitude...

My Soul needs the solace of Solitude,
finding Its Rhythm again
in the deep silent space of "Home";
The Sacred Silence within...

The comfort of the deep Silence
brings everything into perspective;
an inner stability...

I breathe into my Soul
and my Soul breathes into me...
a mutual breath...

I fall into the slumber of a deeper
Rhythm of the Sanctuary of the Soul -

and rest...

Mystic Meandering
Nov. 25, 2022

~

Photo - Mandala Art
Meditating Monks
Mystic Meandering
2013

 

The "Spiritual Journey" Is Unique - Matt Licata

The "spiritual journey" is by its very nature unique...
It must be explored by way of primary, first-person experience.

Contemporary spirituality is filled with all sorts of ideas and
concepts about what it means to be "spiritual" and we must
find the courage to question even the most sacred of these ideas,
trusting the path of direct revelation as we come to have more
and more confidence in our own unique experience.  There
are infinite number of ways to open to, touch and enter the
mystery, and the right way for us might look quite different
from others, even our "spiritual teachers."

At some point on our journey, we might hear a call to set aside
the beliefs, teachings and practices we've gathered throughout
our lives and rest.  This "rest" is not passive, cold or resigned
but lit up from within...  we open to a more paradoxical 
invitation that comes roaring out of thundering silence.  Just
what this is must be discovered by each of us in the fire of
our own direct experience.  We cannot take anyone's word
for it.

In this "rest" we are taken inside a dimension of experience
where we honor the entirety of what we are - [we are] drawn
to bring more awareness to this dimension of experience.
Something mysterious, magical, alive and sacred is wired into
this moment by its very nature and carries the fragrance of the
holy.

...something is granted permission and space to emerge - exactly
as it is.  We are invited into a deeper, richer exploration of the
dimension of the soul; re-entering the state of pure wonderment.

Matt Licata

From: A Healing Space:
Befriending Ourselves In Difficult Times

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

"Niksen" - Chuang Tzu

Heaven does nothing: its non-doing is its serenity.
Earth does nothing: its non-doing is its rest.
From the union of these two non-doings
All actions proceed.
All things are made.
How vast, how invisible
This coming-to-be!

All things come from nowhere!
How vast, how invisible -
No way to explain it!

All beings in their perfection
Are born of non-doing,
Hence it is said:
"Heaven and earth do nothing
Yet there is nothing they do not do."

From: Thomas Merton, The Way of Chuang Tzu

~

I recently read an article in a Time Magazine Special Edition
on Mindfulness, about "Niksen" - the concept of doing nothing.

Here is an excerpt...

It is a Dutch concept that means to do nothing, to be idle, or do
something without purpose.  The idea is to manage stress and
recover from burnout in our chaotic and busy world.  It's as simple
as simply sitting in a chair, looking out your window, or passively
listening to music, or taking a walk in nature.  Where mindfulness
is being present in the  moment with focused attention, Niksen is
more about carving out time to just be, letting the mind wander
rather than focusing on details.

In the Netherlands Niksen has been historically dismissed as
laziness or unproductive.  But as stress levels rise globally, so
does the crushing health impacts, like burnout, that are getting more
and more recognition from the medical community, and doing
nothing is increasingly being reframed as a positive stress
relieving tactic.

Doing non-purposeful, simple tasks allows the mind to wander
which can boost one's creativity and foster creative problem solving
and even induce inspiration, and getting clarity about what action to
take in order to meet a situation.

It can be somewhat challenging for some to just sit and stare out a
window, especially when you are used to *doing* something all the
time.  But dare to be idle - rest - and *allow* life to run its course.  Be
without purpose, carve out time to do something actively passive -
like looking out a window.

Letting the mind wander is not about being caught up in rumination.
We need to train our minds to wander in a way that is imaginative
and creative and ease our way into downtime - doing nothing -
balancing our busyness with non-doing.

Excerpt from:

"Meet Niksen - The Dutch Concept of Doing Nothing"
by Sophia Gottfried
from: Time Magazine Special Edition
Mindfulness: Your Path to Health and Happiness
Aug 15, 2022

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Wrapped in Wonderment - Miriam Louisa Simons

no longer working to get free

(or fix or heal or please)

no longer needing to understand

how any of this is possible

not to mention

knowable

I rest

entirely wrapped

in wonderment

Miriam Louisa Simons

Echoes from Emptiness

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

This Magical Mystery - Kathleen Knipp

Give yourself fully to yourself...just as you are...

Feel fully this mystery of existence; your thoughts,
emotions, the breath, sensations in the body.

Just listening - whole body listening.
Nothing to "fix", or resolve, understand,
repress, or negotiate - or do.

Just simply Be.
Being just Is.

Surrender to just being,
just receiving, listening...

Feel comforted and at ease.
The fundamental feeling of ease
can be accessed - feeling held and supported.

Just Rest.  Just Be - Naturally...
Living this magical mystery.

Excerpts from a Yoga Nidra Meditation
"This Magical Mystery"

by Kathleen Knipp

Pathless Yoga

~

I find Yoga Nidra to be a wonderful way to rest the nervous
system and connect more deeply within in stressful times.

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

The Dimension of the Soul - Matt Licata

Part of the challenge of practices and orientations organized
exclusively around returning to the background field or
context of awareness is that we can lose touch with the
richness of the inner world, the wisdom of creativity...in the
sparkle of the imagination.

We spend so much time [mentally] interpreting and understanding
our experience that we lose touch with the magic of just one
present moment with the aliveness of the senses and more 
intuitive knowing...  Through imagination and creativity a new
poem is received, a new story is able to tumble out of the stars
into, through and as our lives.

The "spiritual journey" is by its very nature radically unique...
It must be explored by way of primary, first-person experience.

Contemporary spirituality is filled with all sorts of ideas and
concepts about what it means to be "spiritual" and we must 
find the courage to question even the most sacred of these ideas,
trusting the path of direct revelation as we come to have more
and more confidence in our own unique experience.  There are
infinite number of  ways to open to, touch, and enter the mystery,
and the right way for us might look quite different from others,
even our "spiritual teachers."

At some point on our journey, we might hear a call to set aside
the beliefs, teachings and practices we've gathered throughout
our lives and rest.  This "rest" is not passive, cold, or resigned
but lit up from within...  we open to a more paradoxical
invitation that comes roaring out of thundering silence.  Just
what this is must be discovered by each of us in the fire of our
own direct experience.  We cannot take anyone's word for it.

In this "rest" we are taken inside a dimension of experience
where we honor the entirety of what we are - [we are] drawn to
 bring more awareness to this dimensions of experience. 
 Something mysterious, magical, alive and sacred is wired into
this moment by its very nature and carries the fragrance of the
holy.

...something is granted permission and space to emerge - exactly
as it is.  We are invited into a deeper, richer exploration of the
dimension of the soul; re-entering the state of pure wonderment.

Matt Licata

From: A Healing Space:
Befriending Ourselves In Difficult Times

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

For One Who Is Exhausted - John O'Donohue

When the rhythm of the heart becomes hectic,
Time takes on the strain until it breaks;
Then all the unattended stress falls in
On the mind like an endless, increasing weight.

The light in the mind becomes dim.
Things you could take in your stride before
Now become laborsome events of will.

Weariness invades your spirit.
Gravity begins falling inside you,
Dragging down every bone.

The tide you never valued has gone out.
And you are marooned on unsure ground.
Something within you has closed down;
And you cannot push yourself back to life.

You have been forced to enter empty time.
The desire that drove you has relinquished.
There is nothing else to do now but rest
And patiently learn to receive the self
You have forsaken in the race of days.

At first your thinking will darken
And sadness takes over like listless weather.
The flow of unwept tears will frighten you.

You have traveled too fast over false ground;
Now your soul has come to take you back.

Take refuge in your senses, open up
To all the small miracles you rushed through.

Become inclined to watch the way of rain
When it falls slow and free.

Imitate the habit of twilight,
Taking time to open the well of color
That fostered the brightness of day.

Draw alongside the silence of stone
Until its calmness can claim you.

Be excessively gentle with yourself.

Stay clear of those vexed in spirit.
Learn to linger around someone of ease
Who feels they have all the time in the world.

Gradually, you will return to yourself,
Having learned a new respect for your heart
And the joy that dwells far within slow time.

John O'Donohue
From - To Bless The Space Between Us

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Rest In Peace - Papaji

Rest in Peace...

You are Eternal Being, unbounded and undivided.
All is well...

You are Happiness, your are Peace, your are Freedom.
Do not entertain any notions that you are in trouble.

Be kind to yourself.  Open to your Heart and simply Be.
Those who know This know Everything.
If not, even the most learned know nothing at all.

Papaji

~

Photo Art - Mystic Meandering

 

Sweet Scent of The Sacred...

Overcome with fatigue - exhausted,
I enter the Liminal Space of "The Sacred."
I listen for Her "voice" - Her Sound - Her vibration
in the space of Deep Rest...

...and find Her waiting...

Her sweet cedar fragrance briefly wafts through
the room and soothes my senses,
calming the "noise" in the body and mind...

In the Quiet, she whispers from within:

Let the mind rest in The Sacred,
take comfort in The Sacred.

There is nothing to do but let things unfold...

Nature is taking its course...
All will be made known in time,
and an "answer" revealed...

Stop everything:
all seeking for solutions
 to unsolvable dilemmas,
or attempts to shift consciousness.

Just allow the natural unfolding of all
circumstances in their own time...

Lay down all "spiritual trinkets"
that you "buy" into - to feel safe and
validated in your beliefs; to feel happy;
to feel "enlightened"; to feel "special."

Just cling to Me...

Communing with Me
in the Liminal Spaces
 all will be made clear.

Mystic Meandering

July 13, 2021

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Rest the Nervous System - Matt Licata

 We've been through so much over the last year [or more]...
not only personally, but culturally and collectively as well...

It's been a slow continuous drip of cortisol/adrenaline into
the collective, a deep unsettling restlessness, on the one
hand, and on the other a collapse; an alternation between
hyper-vigilance and shutting down.

Many of us are experiencing a [deep] tiredness, not only
physically, but a soul-level sort of exhaustion, where what
we thought we knew about ourselves, who we are and what
 matters most to us, what we're doing here, and where we're
 headed...  so much of this has really been called into
question, been dismantled, and in may ways fallen apart...

There is a deep longing to rest and to feel safe again in
our bodies...

It is important to slow down - to mourn not only the losses
of health and life, but also the dream of the way we thought
it was all going to turn out.

The rebirth part of the death-rebirth cycle is embodied
through our willingness and capacity to grieve.  The
portal to new life opens through conscious, embodied
lamentation, as we gather the shards of the heart and
collect them in a holy vase...  as we prepare for what
will emerge out of the ashes of dissolution...

Matt Licata

From: An Invitation to Rest Your Nervous System

Resting Your Nervous System Webinar info

~

Photo from the Internet digitally altered

The Place of Rest - Frank Ostaseski

We often think of rest as something that will come to us
when everything else in our lives is complete: at the end of
the day, when we go on holiday, or get through our to-do
lists.  We imagine that we can only find rest by changing our
circumstances.  [But] we can find a place of rest within us,
without having to alter the conditions of our lives.

This place of rest is always available to us.  We need only 
turn toward it.  It is experienced when we bring full attention,
without distraction, to this moment, to this activity.  After
some time of doing this, we can come to know this
spaciousness as a regular part of our lives.  It manifests
as an aspect of us that is never sick, is not born, and does
not die...

When we are caught in a time driven mentality or tumbling
unconsciously from one moment to the next, we become a
prisoner of our thoughts.  We get trapped in a jail of our own
construction. We want to spin plates, juggle balls, and live
two dreams at once.  We end up being addicted to busy.  We
confuse rest with non-productivity, and laziness.  We race 
from one activity to the next.  Yet we do it all in a continuous
 state of partial attention, imagining we are accomplishing
more, when in reality we are living less.

Rest is found when we are present instead of letting our
minds wander through the hallways of fear, worry and
anxiousness.  Rest comes when we become more by doing
less, when we don't allow the urgent crowd out the important.
It is the result of a decluttering of the mind and decoupling
from fixed views.

If we drop beneath the surface of our minds, we encounter
a vast, serene calmness.  We don't need to be swept away
by the surface currents.  We can find a natural place of rest...

Surface mind reacts.  When you travel into the calm depths,
the place of rest, you can act from a place of wisdom and
compassion, allowing whatever needs to happen, happen...
We surrender our strategies and resistance and open to
what is unfolding...

We come to rest in the depth of our Essential Nature.

Frank Ostaseski
From: The Five Invitations

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Your Own Peculiar Light - Fred LaMotte

 Perhaps you didn't notice how, when you awoke
this morning, you took your first breath
from the other world, the world inside this one,
where atoms are not shadows but fragrances of color,

and flesh is the music that vibrates the Law
that can never be written in books.

It doesn't matter anymore if you are on the Left or Right,
Christian or Muslim, a do-er or non-doer.
You need not wear a veil here in this softer daylight.
The glow of your essential oil anoints the meadow,
greening branches, thickening fur.  The hungry ones

who need your touch are no longer driven away
by the deafening thrum of your thoughts, but gather
toward your musky pollen like bees.  It matters not
what master you follow, what party you join,
but how deeply you rest in your body,
aligning your heart with a certain star,
dissolving that distance with each exhalation.

The formless flower of the void opening her golden cup,
pouring nectar down your darkest furrows, bittersweet,
the taste of death and joy.  Arise, come, begin your task.

Earth is thirsting for the flavor of your own peculiar light.
It rainbows through your face as through the prism
of no other tears.  Hear a new song, don't ask whether
the voice arises within you, or in the dust-atoms
on your path, transforming wounds into destinations:

Shivoham, Shivoham, Chit Ananda Rupam:

Pure truth I am, pure truth I am,
the very form of awakened beauty...

Neither ask what you must do.  From now on
your work is to keep listening, keep listening
for this music in the heart of every stranger.

Fred LaMotte
Uradiance

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Holy Bellows...

She enters the Quietness of Her Being
and waits...

Breathing into the Quiet,
salvaging the remnants from
previous excursions here.

Waves of The Quiet that still
remain, before the mind
usurped the calming rise and fall
with its staccato tempo...

Finding the deeper Rhythm again,
she returns to the Core of Her Being,
unperturbed by the flailing mind
that wants attention.

Following the rhythm of the breath;
breathing in the Holy,
breathing out the Holy...
The Sacredness of The Breath
brings her back;
being breathed by the
Holy Bellows...

Resuscitating the Quiet Core,
she falls back into deep Rest -
just breathing...

The Holy Quiet permeates
her body again with the gentle
vibration of her Aliveness...

Mystic Meandering
June 18, 2020

~

Mandala Art
Mystic Meandering
2013

Why I Sit in "Silence"...

I come to sit - to rest in the deep Quietness...

To sit with uncertainty,
with the fear and anger,
if they arise again, as they
most certainly will.

I come to sit - to mourn the losses of life
and losses of the ways of life;
to mourn the living and the dead,
for the suffering they have endured;

and for the grief - unending grief.

I come to sit - to feel the depths of healing Silence,
the deep Stillness;
to lay the burdens of the heart down
and just rest...

Mystic Meandering
April 30, 2020

~

Photo - Meditating Monks Mandala

?date

For One Who Is Exhausted - John O'Donohue

Photo by Martin Stranka

When the rhythm of the heart becomes hectic,
Time takes on the strain until it breaks;
The all the unattended stress falls in
On the mind like an endless, increasing weight.

The light in the mind becomes dim.
Things you could take in your stride before

Now become laborsome events of will.

Weariness invades your spirit.
Gravity begins falling inside you,
Dragging down every bone.

The tide you never valued has gone out.
And you are marooned on unsure ground.
Something within you has closed down;
And you cannot push yourself back to life.

You have been forced to enter empty time.
The desire that drove you has relinquished.
There is nothing else to do now but rest
And patiently learn to receive the self
You have forsaken in the race of days.

At first your thinking will darken
And sadness take over like listless weather.
The flow of unwept tears will frighten you.

You have traveled too fast over false ground;
now your soul has come to take you back.

Take refuge in your senses, open up
To all the small miracles your rushed through.

Become inclined to watch the way of rain
When it falls slow and free.

Imitate the habit of twilight,
Taking time to open the well of color
That fostered the brightness of day.

Draw alongside the silence of stone
Until its calmness can claim you.
Be excessively gently with yourself.

Stay clear of those vexed of spirit.

Learn to linger around someone of ease
Who feels they have all the time in the world.

Gradually, you will return to yourself,
Having learned a new respect for the heart
And joy that dwells far within slow time.

John O'Donohue

~

Photo - via No Mind's Land

Zero - Jeannie Zandi

There is something that does not move no matter what comes,
no matter what will be lost.

I like to call it zero.  It's sitting in zero [the still point as TS Eliot
calls it].  It's sitting in Being.  It's so slow that it has stopped. And
it has a fierce fidelity to what is authentically unfolding in the
moment out of Being.  Here we stand with what's being born in
its tiny infancy, authentic and shyly showing itself, birthed from
Being.  No care for what it can be used for, where it's going, what
it means about you, me or someone else.  It simply stands without
a name, without a use, standing with that moment because it's
precious, because it's the Holy unfolding itself.

  We blow past the subtle petals of our unfolding, and
this holy birthing that's happening all the time through us.
But What emerges authentically is Holy.

In Being, we're not manipulating anything.  We're not trying
to go anywhere.  We're not trying to heal anything.  We follow
the thread of what's alive and we behold it in reverent silence,
even if every egoic hand wants to grasp it and turn it into
something.  The Holy is shining and peeking its head out...

We are not shown how to stay with the natural expression of
unfolding through us, though we were born knowing it.  As
we grew up, no one saw it, no one reflected it, stood with it,
protected it, had faith in it.....simply because it was.  We were
left in concept-land, zooming over our actual life; our own
organic unfolding.  Now we're stuck in our everyday minds
with our will trying to build something out of concept that
will never be as solid as what the Holy organically reveals.

We can stand in what emerges naturally from Being.  We
can slow down to the speed of Being, which is zero.  It has
nothing to show for itself.  It's simply a miracle as it is.
Everything that is zero is true.

It is Beingness flowing into Beingness. 
When we sit in zero [Being] there is only zero [Being],
and even what moves is still.  At some point you start to feel
 it as yourself.   It starts to wake in you...

  Stay true to the speed of Being.  Don't move unless Being
 moves [you], because you cannot leave that place and offer
anything real, and you're sick to death of ["spiritual"] manipulation
 and skipping over what's actually, purely and humbly here.

It's our zero, like a big dark hole
in the center of us that we thought was our problem. 
It's actually a portal to the Holy.  And through that empty
space of Being the Holy paints the world.

  But... we have forgotten -
how to rest as zero and stand in what's simple and authentic.
And out of fidelity to that Being [that we are], out of this
magnificent black hole, an inordinate amount of glory spills,
and each movement is the poetry of being in motion, while
utterly empty.

Jeannie Zandi

[brackets mine]

~

Photo - a mandala that my mother colored in 2016 at age 88
 digitally zoom blurred and color inverted - magic :).

Arguing With Life - Jeff Foster

What is the point of arguing with life as it is?

The ego replies, "Yeah, but if I stop resisting the way things are,
change will never happen, things will stay the same, 

or get worse..."

You see, the ego does not  understand the ancient mysteries of
change and healing. It truly believes - in relationships, in career,
in life decisions, in global matters - that peace can only come
through war, that real change can only happen through hating
where we are and desperately wanting to be somewhere else.

Here is the paradox of change.  When we tire of the internal
violence, when we are no longer at war with the way things are,
when we no longer argue with the present scene in the movie
of our lives, we come to rest.  And then, from a place of rest,
new vistas open up, hitherto unexplored possibilities reveal
themselves.  New connections are made, new solutions emerge.
From a place of equanimity and acceptance, things that
seemed certain are now not so certain, blocks are no longer
blocks, old futures begin to collapse and new futures become
possible.  Energies that seemed intolerable a moment ago are
now allowed in, allowed to move, to express and release their
creativity and healing power.  Because our eyes are open, new
details are apparent in the present scene, details that we had
become blind to, in our rush to "a better future."

From a place of peace, we can more easily take the next step.
And sometimes the nest step means taking no step at all,
but falling deeply in love with where we are.  This is NOT

the same as giving up.  This is not passivity or toleration of the
'negative.'  This is not the same as abandoning all hope of a
better future.  There is no abandonment here.  This is not
stagnation.  This is not weakness.  This is true courage.  The
willingness to slow down, be present, drink in all the richness -
the joy and the sorrow, the doubt and the creativity - of the
present scene.

The movie has not been written yet; it writes itself as we go
along.  And in resisting the present scene, you are actually
resisting the entire movie.  Resistance can only breed
resistance.

Sometimes the point of arguing with life, is to get you to
a point where you are tired of arguing with life.  And then
you sink deeply into the present moment, resting in its
embrace, trusting the way of things, accepting your own
imperfections.  And then everything seems possible, and
everything feels alive as you feel alive, and fearless, and
real change can come.

Perhaps slowly, perhaps in a great tidal wave.  But you no
longer push for it.  You are letting it happen. You are
aligned at last, no longer part of the problem, but already
an expression of the solution.

Sometimes you need to stop trying to change the moment,
for the moment to change...  all by itself.

Everything you think is wrong with you, is actually right.
Spiritual enlightenment is already here, shining through
the simplicity of this moment, exactly as it is.

The divine perfection you've been seeking is actually contained
in the midst of your tender vulnerability and imperfections.
There is precious alchemical medicine hidden inside your pain,
and your deepest longings, aches, doubts, grief and heartache
are portals to joy and healing.

Jeff Foster