ONE HEARTFUL THING # 7: We are not protected from suffering but we are sustained by Love

Three quotes to support us as we face our pain, past or present

Mary Thoma

I’m walking through a lot of grief right now. It’s a slog and it’s exhausting. Even small, everyday tasks require more effort. I never know when a new association or a sudden reminder of my father will pop up unexpectedly and grip my unprotected heart.

Grief of any kind tends to pick up the memories of our past grief; like when my girls were little and I would clean up their playdough, by taking one large glob to pick up all the little bits. Grief never is never just one thing, no matter how big that one thing feels.

Today, I wanted to share a few quotes about suffering (and love) that have come to my aid at different times in my life. You may not be grieving the loss of a parent today, but we are all carrying something. Perhaps one of these quotes will meet you where you are today, friend.

May you feel sustained by Love.

xo Mary

“Nobody will protect you from your suffering. You can't cry it away or eat it away or starve it away or walk it away or punch it away or even therapy it away. It's just there, and you have to survive it. You have to endure it. You have to live through it and love it and move on and be better for it and run as far as you can in the direction of your best and happiest dreams across the bridge that was built by your own desire to heal. “

~Cheryl Strayed

“Love is what we long for and were created for—in fact, love is what we are as an outpouring from God—but suffering often seems to be our opening to that need, that desire, and that identity. Love and suffering are the main portals that open the mind space and the heart space (either can come first), breaking us into breadth and depth and communion. Almost without exception, great spiritual teachers will have strong and direct guidance about love and suffering. If we never go there, we will not know these essentials. We’ll try to work it all out in our heads, but our minds alone can’t get us there. We must love ‘with our whole heart, our whole soul, our whole mind, and our whole strength.’(Mark 12:30).”

- The Center For Action And Contemplation newsletter/ adapted from Richard Rohr

“So, stabilized in love, we are grounded in the courage that empowers us to touch the hurting places. Prior to being grounded in love, we think we are nothing but the self that things happen to. We are afraid to go near the hurting place because we absolutize the relative. But if we are absolutely grounded in the absolute love of God that protects us from nothing, even as it sustains us in all things, it grounds us to face all things with courage and tenderness. “

- James Finley

© Mary Thoma. All Rights Reserved 2024