Reflect, Resonate, Reevaluate, Respond
The greatest sources of our suffering are the lies we tell ourselves.
~ Bessel van der Kolk, 1943- , The Body Keeps the Score
The experience of being in between—between the time we leave home and arrive at our destination; between the time we leave adolescence and arrive at adulthood; between the time we leave doubt and arrive at faith. It is like the time when a trapeze artist lets go the bars and hangs in midair, ready to catch another support: it is a time of danger, of expectation, of uncertainty, of excitement, or extraordinary aliveness.
~ Paul Tournier, 1898-1986, Swiss Physician and Author
We have learned that trauma is not just an event that took place sometime in the past; it is also the imprint left by that experience on mind, brain, and body. This imprint has ongoing consequences for how the human organism manages to survive in the present. Trauma results in a fundamental reorganization of the way mind and brain manage perceptions. It changes not only how we think and what we think about, but also our very capacity to think.
~ Bessel van der Kolk, 1943- , Trauma Research Author
Jesus today has many who love his heavenly kingdom, but few who carry his cross; many who yearn for comfort, few who long for distress. Plenty of people he finds to share his banquet, few to share his fast. Everyone desires to take part in his rejoicing, but few are willing to suffer anything for his sake. There are many that follow Jesus as far as the breaking of bread, few as far as drinking the cup of suffering; many that revere his miracles, few that follow him in the indignity of his cross.
~ Thomas à Kempis, 1380– 1471, Christian Theologian, wrote Imitating Jesus
The essential thing in heaven and earth is that there should be long obedience in the same direction; there thereby results, and has always resulted in the long run, something which has made life worth living.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
Every choice is a renunciation. Indeed. Every choice is a thousand renunciations. To choose one thing is to turn one’s back on many others.
~ Ronald Rolheiser, 1947- , Theologian, The Holy Longing: The Search for a Christian Spirituality