“Rebirth is almost impossible without the darkness.....I tell myself I am experiencing the death of myself as mother, the death of myself as a younger woman -- precious old lives going by the wayside. Of course, I should let myself grieve. To deny the grief is to squander a transforming and radiant possibility.” ShouldMotherCoursesGriefDarknessImpossiblePossibilityDenyGrievingRebirthTransformingRadiantOld Life Author:Sue Monk Kidd
“Sometimes I think the people to feel the saddest for are people who are unable to connect with the profound—people such as my boring brother-in-law, a hearty type so concerned with normality and fitting in that he eliminates any possibility of uniqueness for himself and his own personality. I wonder if some day, when he is older, he will wake up and the deeper part of him will realize that he has never allowed himself to truly exist, and he will cry with regret and shame and grief.” PeopleIfsThinkingFeelsSometimesLawRealizingGriefWonderCryPossibilityBrotherRegretTypePersonalityConcernedWake UpShameProfoundBoringDeeperUniquenessIn-lawsFittingSaddestNormalityHeartyBrother In Law Book:Life After God Source: Life After God
“Michael [Jackson] reconstructed his face and deconstructed the African features into a spooky European geography of fleshly possibilities, and yet what we couldn't deny, that even as his face got whiter and whiter his music got Blacker and Blacker. His soul got more deeply rooted in the existential agony and the profound social grief that Black people are heir to.” PeopleSoulFacesSocialBlackGriefPossibilityProfoundDenyFeaturesBlack PeopleRootedAgonyExistentialGeographyHeirsSpooky Author:Michael Eric Dyson
“A vampire is a flexible metaphor. You know, death, sex, change, stagnation, loss of self, loss of agency, having to keep one's real self secret, the possibility of something lasting forever: love, hate, grief.” KnowsRealSelfHateSexLossGriefSecretForeverPossibilityMetaphorVampireAgencyLastingFlexibleLove HateStagnationReal SelfForever LoveSex Change Author:Kelly Link
“And sometimes we cling because the memory is so painful that we can't stop visiting it and hoping to make it come out differently. The risk of letting go is that we have to confront our own selves and our own possibilities.” SelfSometimesMemoriesGriefRiskPossibilityLetting GoPainfulVisiting Author:Amy Bloom
“Evolution tells us how to survive; art tells us how it's possible still to live even while knowing that we and all we love will someday vanish. It says there's beauty even in grief, freedom even inside the strictures of form and of life. What's liberating isn't what's simplest; it's the ability to include more and more shadows, colors and possibilities inside any moment's meeting of self and world.” WorldArtStillsSelfMomentsFormAbilityGriefKnowingPossibilityColorEvolutionShadowMeetingsSomedaySimplestLiberating Author:Jane Hirshfield
“Fairy tale does not deny the existence of sorrow and failure: the possibility of these is necessary to the joy of deliverance. It denies (in the face of much evidence, if you will) universal final defeat...giving a fleeting glimpse of Joy; Joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief.” IfsWorldGivingDoeFacesJoyGriefExistencePossibilityWallSorrowEvidenceUniversalFinalsDefeatDenyTalesFairyFairy TaleGlimpseFleetingDeliverancePoignant Author:J. R. R. Tolkien
“Dealing with the impossible, fantasy can show us what may be really possible. If there is grief, there is the possibility of consolation; if hurt, the possibility of healing; and above all, the curative power of hope. If fantasy speaks to us as we are, it also speaks to us as we might be” IfsMayShowsMightSpeakHurtGriefHealingFantasyImpossiblePossibilityConsolation Author:Lloyd Alexander
“I am convinced that when we bring our griefs and sorrows within the story of God's own grief and sorrow, and allow them to be held there, God is able to bring healing to us and new possibilities to our lives. That is, of course, what Good Friday and Easter are all about.” StoriesAbleCoursesGriefHealingOur LivesPossibilitySorrowConvincedEasterFridayGood FridayNew PossibilitiesGod Is Able Author:N. T. Wright