cara@myhealingart.com
"An important part of healing is facing the tremendous anguish one endures during and after bouts of acute symptoms...I often feel an overwhelming sense of power-lessness and sadness....they are invisible, but very rich moments when all our forces are marshaled and, although suffering, we are intensely focused and alive" (Bouvard, in Myers and Ferlin, 2007)
"Most people do not recognize the strength of the life force in them or the many ways that it shows itself to them. Yet every one of us has felt its power. I have learned it can be trusted" (Remen, 1994)
"Seven years have passed since I betrayed my arms. Seven years, since they, in turn, betrayed me....During this time, I've grown stronger, much stronger. Grief, however, is enough of a burden for one day. If I've learned anything from this, I've learned to respect my limits. Today I will wear my grief, but looking forward takes hope - and the weight of that will have to wait for a different way" (Ferlin, 2007)
"Sometimes we live in ways that are too small and in places that focus and develop only part of who we are. When we do, the life in us may become squeezed into a shape that is not our own. This may be why, when people's lives are challenged by significant illness and they instinctively begin to gather their strength, their values are often among the first things to change" (Remen, 1996)
"The places in which we are seen and heard are holy places. They remind us of our value as human beings. They give us the strength to go on. Eventually, they may even help us to transform our pain into wisdom" (Remen, 1996)
"....My healing comes from my bitterness itself, my despair, my terror. It comes from my shadow. I dip down into that muck again and again and then am flooded with its healing energy.... I can never simply give up to my despair when I first feel it stir, I always resist. I guess that's why they call it despair. If you went willingly, it would be called something hopeful, like purification or renewal" (Cohen, 2000)
"Illness is an upside-down world, a mirror image reversing the assumptions of our normal, daily lives. I think of it as the underside of life itself, the night to our days, the roots of our trees. Sometimes I ask myself, "Why didn't I see this before?" Then some sure voice from the depths of my illness replies, "You could not see before" (Duff, 1993)
"Those who have learned by experience what physical pain and bodily anguish mean, belong together all the world over; they are united by a secret bond. One and all they know the horrors of suffering to which man can be exposed, and one and all they know the longing to be free of pain..." (Albert Schweitzer)
