"Healing, then, becomes not the absence of pain but the increased ability to meet it with mercy instead of loathing. No one can wholly remove our pain. All we can do is increase the spaciousness of mind and heart in which it is allowed to decompress.
Letting go is letting be.
As a result, we find ourselves exploring the capacity to slowly increase that space in which even great grief--the loss of a love, the loss of a child, the loss of innocence, the loss of faith--can be experienced.
We find ourselves meeting helplessness with a simple kindness that confounds our addiction to critical self-judgment. We find ourselves more likely to meet others' confusion and helplessness openheartedly. We find ourselves with less need for others or ourselves to be different in order to be loved.
We find ourselves."
--from Unattended Sorrow by Stephen Levine
