Joan - Thank you so much for writing this little piece.  This would apply
to any of us, whether we are PWP or CG.  I feel sorry for those who have
so much pity for themselves that that is all they talk about.  You are a
true blessing.  Jo Ann

On Sun, 10 Apr 2005 17:42:52 -0500 Joan Snyder <[log in to unmask]>
writes:
> Suffering and pain
>
> I do not know who ever promised me a life without suffering and
> pain. I
> have heard it said on this list that suffering is a medieval concept
> without any benefit or grace to be earned by enduring it . This, I
> feel,
> is a gross misrepresentation of life as anyone who lives this journey
> will tell you. Life is filled with hurts, pain and suffering and also
> with man’s inhumanity to man. Only by living and dealing with those
> things that I cannot change, can you ever really find peace. I think
> that these brilliant minds say it better than i can:
>
> “My personal trials have also taught me the value of unmerited
> suffering. As my sufferings mounted I soon realized that there were
> two
> ways that I could respond to my situation: either to react with
> bitterness or seek to transform the suffering into a creative force.
> I
> decided to follow the latter course. Recognizing the necessity for
> suffering I have tried to make of it virtue. If only to save myself
> from
> bitterness, I have attempted to see my personal ordeals as an
> opportunity to transform myself and heal the people involved in the
> tragic situation, which now obtains. I have lived these last few
> years
> with the conviction that unearned suffering is redemptive.”
> Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
> “Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the
> overcoming of it. <http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/1632.html>”
> Helen
> Keller
> “Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through
> experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened,
> ambition
> inspired, and success achieved.
> <http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/30186.html>" Helen Keller
> “We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only
> joy in
> the world. <http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/2332.html>” Helen
> Keller
> “It requires more courage to suffer than to die.” Napoleone Bonaparte
> “The salvation of the world is in man’s suffering.” William Faulkner
> “If you suffer, thank God! It is a sure sign that you are alive.”
> Elbert
> Hubbard
> “Suffering becomes beautiful when anyone bears great calamities with
> cheerfulness, not through insensibility but through greatness of
> mind.”
> Aristotle
> “We are healed of suffering only by experiencing it in full.” Marcel
> Proust
>
> While I too, would love to live in a perfect world and I would never
> go
> out and deliberately look for ways to torture myself, I do not see
> any
> way to avoid having suffering and pain in my life. Oh, there is one
> more
> quote…it’s in my signature file:
>
> --
> Joan Blessington Snyder   54/14
> [log in to unmask]
> http://www.pwnkle.com/jes/jes_web/index.htm
> “Hang tough……..no way through it but to do it.”
> Chris in the Morning      Northern Exposure
>
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