I spent a good bit of time yesterday on hold with B&N who, when I finally got through, not only agreed to send me a replacement copy (signed, which I had ordered!), but did it through Expedited Delivery, meaning it is scheduled to arrive Monday. I told the Customer Service representative, appropriately named Hope, that I realized this was a First World Problem, and was extremely grateful for how promptly and kindly the situation was handled... :-)
In the meantime, my friend Michele sent me her copy, which I am now reading (and loving!), and will give to Sarah tomorrow when I see her... and will let Nancy borrow the new copy next week.
All this to say, I am about halfway through, and already weeping like a baby. Had to share this brutiful (TM Glennon) passage:
“I can use pain to become. I am here to keep becoming truer, more beautiful versions of myself again and again forever.
To be alive is be in a perpetual state of revolution. Whether I like it or not, pain is the fuel of revolution. Everything I need to become the woman I’m meant to be next, is inside my feelings of now.
Life is alchemy and emotions are the fire that turns me to gold. I will continue to become only if I resist extinguishing myself a million times a day. If I can sit in the fire of my own feelings, I will keep becoming…
Numbness keeps us from becoming.
This is why every great spiritual teacher tells us the same story about humanity and pain: ‘Don’t avoid it. You need it to evolve to become. And you are here to become.’
Like Buddha who had to leave his life of comfort to experience all kinds of human suffering before finding enlightenment. Like Moses who wandered 40 years in the desert before seeing the promised land. Like Westley from The Princess Bride who said, ‘Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.’ Like Jesus who walked straight toward his own crucifixion.
First the pain, then the waiting, then the rising. All of our suffering comes when we try to get to our resurrection without allowing ourselves to be crucified first.
There is no glory except straight through your story.
Pain is not tragic. Pain is magic. Suffering is tragic. Suffering is what happens when we avoid pain and consequently miss our becoming. That is what I can and must avoid. Missing my own evolution because I am too afraid to surrender to the process. Having such little faith in myself that I numb or hide or consume my way out of my fiery feelings again and again.
So, my goal is to stop abandoning myself and stay. To trust that I’m strong enough to handle the pain that is necessary to the process of becoming. Because what scares me a hell of a lot more than pain is living my entire life and missing my becoming. What scares me more than feeling it all, is missing it all.”
~ Glennon Doyle, Untamed
SONG: Hope by Natasha Bedingfield
BOOK: Beyond Words: Daily Readings in the ABC's of Faith by Frederick Buechner
POEM: The Celtic Prayer of Approach
I honor your gods,
I drink at your well,
I bring an undefended heart to our meeting place.
I have no cherished outcomes,
I will not negotiate by withholding, and
I am not subject to disappointment.
QUOTE(S): “Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid.” ~ Frederick Buechner
“And now that you don't have to be perfect, you can be good.” ~ John Steinbeck
"Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better." ~ Maya Angelou
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