When any calamity has been suffered the first thing to be remembered is, how much has been escaped.

Some people feel guilty about their anxieties and regard them as a defect of faith but they are afflictions, not sins. Like all afflictions, they are, if we can so take them, our share in the passion of Christ.

Sometimes to get your life back, you have to face the death of what you thought your life would look like.

On the other side of pain, there is still love.

There're a lot of things you don't understand. Zachary smoldered his gaze at me. I came looking for you, and then when I found out where you were, suddenly it didn't seem worth it. It wasn't you. It was everything and nothing. Life. Ma's death. Talking to anybody. Not worth it

we do not have to understand God's ways, or the suffering and brokenness and pain that sooner or later come to us all. But we do have to know in the very depths of our being that the ultimate end of the story, no matter how many aeons it takes, is going to be all right.

Life at best is a precarious business, and we aren't told that difficult or painful things won't happen, just that it matters. It matters not just to us but to the entire universe.

The breaking of the harmony was pain, was brutal anguish, but the harmony kept rising above the pain, and the joy would pulse with light, and light and dark once more knew each other, and were part of the joy.

Only when your love of roses is greater than your fear of thorns can you grow a beautiful garden.

Pain in the wilderness is an investment in pleasure in the Promised Land.

Future dreams distract you from present nightmares.

If your dreams are priceless, they are worth more than your pain.