Lesr’s Reviews > Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow > Status Update

What would I rather be doing? Worrying or praying?

It is often easier to remain stuck in old behaviors and mind-sets even when they no longer serve us, even when they make us miserable. Like animals that won't leave their cages when the doors have been opened, were more comfortable with what we know. We get attached to the way things are, no matter how ridiculous or destructive they've become.

Don't fight with reality. Don't defend against it. Rather, read it like you would a newspaper. Read everything that happens to you and to others as pertinent news about the reality of being human, of being you.

Unfelt feelings and unexpressed grief have a way of dulling life. It is as if with every grief we do not feel, we stuff another handful of our vitality un-derground, until we are numb or sick or embittered.

“Today I will just stretch out in the leaves and drift into space.”

“There are hundreds of ways to put down our burdens, hundreds of ways to give and receive blessings, hundreds of ways to wake up grateful after a sleepless night.”