Insight For Challenging Times

Whenever you find you are sad or going through a more challenging time, then read this excerpt from Marianne Williamson's book 'Everyday Grace'. I find it inspiring, hopeful, and soothing:

"So it is that the modern mystic when experiencing the heartbreak of life does not avoid the heartbreak nor try to distance from it in the name of spirituality, mental health or anything else. Enlightenment does not consist of pretending to be where we are not. Enlightenment means being in touch with where we are and being willing to learn what God would have us learn from it. Sometimes the purpose of a day is merely to feel our sadness knowing that as we do we allow whole layers of grief, like old skin cells, to drop off us.  The wisdom that comes from having experienced heartbreak cannot be bequeathed. It can only be gained through experience, and having truly felt it we are far more likely to have compassion for others. Anything that takes us closer to true compassion, takes us closer to what will one day be an experience of even greater joy."