Do not run away from your suffering, befriend it, appreciate it, embrace it, for there your joy lives and for there your joy lies. And that’s why the greatest amongst us have been hurt the most. I know in my own life, any authenticity I have, any vulnerability I have, any relatability I have, any creativity I really have has come not from the times on the mountaintop and all the applause and celebration, it’s come from those winters of heartbreak, where I felt alone and I felt confused, and I felt like I didn’t fit into the
world, and I felt depleted, exhausted and heartbroken.
The very things that were most hurtful to me, I’ve realized, are the very things that have become the most helpful to me. And even the people who have hurt me, I’ve realized those people were my spiritual friends. I could have pointed the finger at them. I could have blamed them. I could have been angry at them. Instead, what I encourage you is, rather than judging people, try to understand people.
Everyone does the best that they know how to do based on where they’re at. And if they could have done better, they would have done better. Everyone is operating at the level of consciousness they know. And if they were more conscious, more awake, if they were bigger, if they were more intimate with their greater wisdom and their true humanity, and that native hero that rests inside every human heart, they would have operated at that level.