“Everybody prays whether [you think] of it as praying or not. The odd silence you fall into when something very beautiful is happening or something very good or very bad. The ah-h-h-h! that sometimes floats up out of you as out of a Fourth of July crowd when the sky-rocket bursts over the water. The stammer of pain at somebody else s pain. The stammer of joy at somebody else's joy. Whatever words or sounds you use for sighing with over your own life. These are all prayers in their way.” ThinkingWayLifeSometimesUsePainBeautifulJoyFallSoundWaterPrayerSilenceSkyPrayingHappeningsVery GoodCrowdsOddOver YouFourthFloatsRocketsJulyVery Beautiful Author:Frederick Buechner
“Joy, happiness ... we do not question. They are beyond question, maybe. A matter of being. But pain forces us to think, and to make connections ... to discover what has been happening to cause it. And, curiously enough, pain draws us to other human beings in a significant way, whereas joy or happiness to some extent, isolates.” ThinkingWayHumansHas BeensMatterEnoughPainJoyHumanityForceCausesHuman BeingsDrawsHappeningsConnectionsSignificantJoy HappinessEnough Pain Book:Recovering: A Journal Source: Recovering: A Journal
“By utility is meant that property is any object, whereby it tends to produce benefit, advantage, pleasure, good, or happiness(all this in the present case come to the same thing) or (what comes again to the same thing) to prevent the happening of mischief, pain, evil or unhappiness to the party who whose is considered: if that party be the community in general, then the happiness of the community; if a particular individual; then the happiness of that individual” IfsPainEvilIndividualCommunityPleasurePartyCasesObjectsProduceParticularBenefitsHappeningsAdvantagePropertyUnhappinessUtilityMischief Book:The Principles of Morals and Legislation Source: The Principles of Morals and Legislation
“People who praise illness as bringing out the best in people ought to have their heads examined. Pain forces you to think about yourself, directs your interest to your own body and what is happening to it. You don't reach out benevolently, filled with good will for others. You don't seem to care enough. Pain makes you a little person, not a big one, and not a nice one, except perhaps in the case of saints, and I've never known one.” PeopleThinkingLittlesPersonsEnoughBodyBigsSeemsCarePainForceInterestKnownCasesNiceOughtHappeningsPraiseFilledSaintIllnessAbout YourselfReach OutGood WillBringing Out The BestEnough Pain Book:Put out the light Source: Put out the light
“Many spiritual people are involved in a radical denial of what is happening. They want to transcend it, get rid of it, get out of it, get away from it. There's nothing wrong with that feeling, but the approach doesn't work because it's escapism in spiritual clothing. It's wearing spiritual clothing and spiritual concepts, but it is really no different than a drunk in the gutter who doesn't want to feel the pain anymore. When you abide and accept everything completely and fully, you automatically go beyond.” PeopleWantFeelsDifferentFeelingsPainSpiritualAcceptingInvolvedApproachHappeningsConceptsDrunkRadicalDenialGet AwayClothingsEscapismGutters Author:Adyashanti
“The process of grief has a beginning a middle and an end. The hard part is holding on in the middle. You can hold on. There's transformation happening in these times bringing you to a new place. It's a place you can only get to through the pain.” EndsHardPainProcessGriefMiddleHappeningsTransformationHolding OnNew Places Author:Mary Gauthier
“No matter what is happening in life or in the world - war, natural disaster, poor health, pain, the death of loved ones - if existence is filled with art, music and literature, life will be fulfilling, a joy.” IfsWorldArtWarMatterPainJoyLiteratureNaturalPoorExistenceHappeningsNo Matter WhatFilledDisasterWar Of The WorldsLoved OnesDeath Of A Loved OneFulfillingNatural DisasterArt MusicPoor Health Author:Karen DeCrow