“The pain you are going through is not what will determine your future; your future will be determined by who you are as you go through your pain.”
- Tears to Triumph, page xii
"A life of spiritual triumph is not one in which we never fall into a deep, dark valley; it is one in which, if and when we do fall, we’ve learned how to get ourselves out of it."- Tears to Triumph, book jacket
After all, people didn’t just start dying, confronting catastrophes or enduring heartbreak. Over the millennia, we have figured out ways to adapt to challenges or threats to our survival. The “problem” with modern society is that we have learned to numb, medicate and/or deny our pain. Even our pop culture is a numbing agent, making us inappropriately comfortable when we ought to be appropriately uncomfortable.
What we need to realize is that periods of suffering are not always detours but can serve as significant stops along the journey. Even the happiest life can have deeply sad days. The fact that we can be heartbroken is part of our humanity; it is not a weakness in our character. By avoiding our pain, we avoid our growth.
"The only way to escape our suffering is to rise above the thought system that creates it."- Tears to Triumph, page 9
Marianne finds it odd that we spend so much time treating the darkness and so little time seeking the light.
Did you know, for instance, that in order to create their beautiful plumage, peacocks sometimes eat thorns? So it is with us. As excruciating as the “thorns” of regret, failure and loss can be to endure, they can also pave the way to the “unparalleled beauty” of illumination, forgiveness, appreciation and gratitude.
Instead, we have taken the dictates of a business model and imposed them onto everything. We rush what ought not to be rushed. People thus feel guilty for grieving. A typical example is when someone says: “It’s been a month since your mother died. Aren’t you over it yet?” At such a time, it’s more than okay–in fact healthy–to say, “No, I’m not, and I probably won’t be for a while.”
Yes, the mechanistic worldview that permeates our civilization is depressing. The consequence is a low-level daily sadness and disconnection from one another. According to the author, this larger epidemic of individual fatigue, weariness and lack of vitality will not be adequately assuaged until we address the larger problems in our society.
On an individual level, here is some starting food-for-thought:
"The moment I become part of a larger solution, and a larger world, my own healing begins."- Tears to Triumph, page 76
It’s almost as if we’re individuals in a very bright room, holding our fingers in front of our eyes and complaining that it is dark in here.
In turn, once we un-freeze out of the confined limitations in which we have housed ourselves, we may notice some things that need to change in us. Plus, we might learn how certain neurotic patterns are ruining our personal as well as collective lives. The outer world is merely a projection of our inner thoughts.
By expanding our thinking, we forge new pathways in our brains and avail ourselves of quantum possibilities that otherwise would not appear. To start to travel down such new roadways, here are additional “provocations” to consider:
To summarize, we need emotional muscles to rise up emotionally and physical muscles to rise up physically. Developing those muscles takes work. As a result of her enlightening words, Marianne Williamson leaves us stronger to help set all of us free.
Marianne Williamson is an internationally acclaimed spiritual author and lecturer. Six of her ten published books have been New York Times Best Sellers. Four of these have been #1 New York Times Best Sellers. A Return to Love is considered a must-read of The New Spirituality. A paragraph from that book, beginning “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure…” – often misattributed to Nelson Mandela’s Inaugural address – is considered an anthem for a contemporary generation of seekers.
