“Tragedy and suffering will come to you. You cannot insulate yourself from them. You cannot avoid them. They come in their own season and in their own time. When they come, they will immobilize you.

When all is going well, our world is a small controlled experience bounded by our daily rituals and activities. When tragedy and suffering come swooping in, they shatter our tiny boundaries and break our world into pieces.

For a time we are living inside a scream where there seems to be no exit, only echoes.

…When we finally reclaim ourselves, as we ultimately do, we are changed.

…The question you must ask yourself is not if you will heal, but how.

Grief and pain have their own duration, and when they begin to pass, you must take care to guide the shape of the new being you are to become.

So you should not fear tragedy and suffering. Like love, they make you more a part of the human family. From them can come your greatest creativity.

They are the fire that burns you pure.”

– Kent Nerburn