OPreach
Dominican Preaching through Word and Image
Joy and Pain
Don’t be concerned about being disloyal to your pain by being joyous.
– Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, Alchemical Wisdom
Dominican Preaching through Word and Image
Don’t be concerned about being disloyal to your pain by being joyous.
– Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, Alchemical Wisdom
OPreach 
This thought is brilliant. I spent so much of my life immersed in and consumed by physical and emotional pain. It has been good to welcome joy and peace into the mix!
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Glad you like it, Kate! I agree. It can feel disloyal to celebrate something that is life-giving while something difficult is occurring. It is a discipline to make room for both. Pat
The photo is wonderful! And the thought is so true, even if it is a wisdom a person need to grow into, gently encouraged by wise and caring friends. There are so many reasons for people to hold on to pain and give it more room than it asks for. As there are so many ways we can show and share beauty and joy even when in pain. To me that is part of what it means being alive, pain will follow us, but will not last. Even where joy is hard to find, we know there are always some blessings to be found, to remind us that joy will last, and will come to stay.
Solveig
Thank you, Solveig. I recall walking on the beach after the 9/11 attack. It was such a beautiful day in the San Francisco Bay Area. It seemed so strange to be rejoicing in such beauty following a day of such horror. I’ll never forget the experience. It is important to remember that evil can never rob goodness of its beauty. Peace, Pat
Reblogged this on sidewalk monastic.