Gaining Stregnth

 

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  Last week I was taking a medical test. On the wall in    front of me was a Native American proverb, which I liked  so I wrote it down, and lost it. I remember that it was on adversity.  I have spent the week looking on-line for a quote like it. Some interesting ones I have found are:

Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which, in prosperous circumstances, would have lain dormant.
~ Horace 65-68 B.C. ~

Pain by itself is merely pain, but the experience of pain coupled with an understanding that the pain serves a worthy purpose is suffering. Suffering can be endured because there is a reason for it that is worth the effort. What is more worthy of your pain than the evolution of your soul?
~ Gary Zukav from "Seat Of The Soul" ~

The truth is, that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.
~ M. Scott Peck ~

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.
~Helen Keller ~

When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.
~ Viktor Frankl - from Man's Search For Meaning ~

The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it.
~ Moliere

When it is dark enough you can see the stars

-Charles A. Beard, American Historian (1874-1949)

Ideologies separate us. Dreams and anguish bring us together.
 Eugen Ionescu 1909-1994) French playwright & dramatist

It seems like there is so much adversity in our world today. Some mornings I think about pulling the covers back over my head till tomorrow comes. My sister told me of a dream that she had once.

“I had a dream sometime ago, still vivid. Youth and children were drowning in a pool on the side of an old volcano. The pool's attractive warmth, colors, and flowers stemmed from a very dangerous source deep inside the mountain. The youth seemed to know they were in trouble and their arms broke the surface of the water reaching up to be rescued. I had only to grasp their forearms and they were able to pull themselves out of the pool and run down the grassy slope to safety. But the babies on the other side of the pool didn't know they were drowning. Toddlers and infants lay below the surface in a complacent sleep. Adults enjoying the day and a picnic by the side of the pool didn't want to go into the water to help. Finally one woman in a white dress said she would stand by the side of the pool and hold the children as they were handed up. She hugged and nurtured the little one until it could stand on its own. I woke up before all the children were rescued.”

There are several interpretations one could give this dream, But I think I will choose, “ There are many people who are facing adversity in their lives today. I want to be one of the ones nurturing, comforting, and helping. We can’t do everything, but we can do something.”

The soul would have no rainbow if the eye had no tears. - Tribe Unknown