And as the ax bites into the wood, be comforted in the fact that the ache in your heart and the confusion in your soul means that you are still alive, still human, and still open to the beauty of the world, even though you have done nothing to deserve it.
Interpretation
Embrace your feelings as a sign of being alive and connected to the beauty around you.
This quote highlights the importance of acknowledging and accepting the pain and confusion we experience in life as evidence of our humanity. The author reassures us that such feelings are natural and indicative of our capacity to appreciate the world's beauty, despite any external circumstances that might make us feel undeserving.
In practice
During a motivational speech about overcoming life's challenges.
I was ravenous for my child and took to gorging myself in the boneyard, hoping that she might possibly meet me halfway, or just beyond, one night, if only for an instant—step back into her own bare feet, onto the wet grass or fallen leaves or snowy ground of the living Enon, so that we could share just one last human word.
There is my father whispering in my ear, Be still still still. And yet you change everything. What was the marsh like, waiting for the storm before you came and kneeled in the water? It was nothing. Watch after you leave the water, now cold and regretful, miles from home, certain of the belt on your backside, the cold shoulder, the extra chores; watch. Watch the water heal itself of your presence--not to repair injury but to offer itself again should you care to risk another strapping [...].
Let the gentle bush dig its root deep and spread upward to split one boulder.
What once seemed such a curse has become a blessing. All the agony that threatened to destroy my life now seems like the fertile ground for greater trust, stronger hope, and deeper love.
Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents against error... They are the natural enemies of error, and of error only... If [free enquiry] be restrained now, the present corruptions will be protected, and new ones encouraged.
A musk deer searches for the source of the fragrance of musk, but it won't find it because the fragrance comes from within itself. Bliss is not to be found outside of us; it exists within us.
Modesty is the lowest of the virtues, and is a real confession of the deficiency it indicates. He who undervalues himself is justly undervalued by others.
Any man who's not willing to take half a loaf in a negotiation, well, that man never went to bed hungry.
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