“Stop punishing yourself for being someone with a heart. You cannot protect yourself from suffering. To live is to grieve. You are not protecting yourself by shutting yourself off from the world. You are limiting yourself.”
― Leigh Bardugo, King of Scars
Right now it seems as if the universe is conspiring against me. An evil dictator unleashing his maniacal ego on an innocent country; a young woman I recently met and worked with at a treatment center, dying from a drug overdose; an old wound that I thought had healed being reopened by the disappointing realization that some of my family members are still afflicted with the unhealthy attitudes of hate, dishonesty, resentment, and dysfunctional codependency. All happening at the same time.
My heart has been broken many times over in my life and it has healed an equal number of times but for a while during this convergence of distressing energy, I felt all the old wounds and scar tissue becoming inflamed again. As I sat with the pain, it occurred to me that this is because I care and because I love and because I’m living fully.
May my heart never harden.
…………..
Grief can be the garden of compassion. If you keep your heart open through everything, your pain can become your greatest ally in your life’s search for love and wisdom.
~ Rumi
Megan Woodward Moyer 