Lol

In the Christian tradition there is an emphasis on the shadow — the dark side of humankind for which each person must take responsibility. Exploration of the shadow is one of the most important goals of Christian spirituality.
— Lauren Artress in Walking a Sacred Path

In Eastern teachings there is a saying that everything that has a front has a back.... Energy expresses itself in polarities, in opposites.... We contain both darkness and light, sorrow and joy, the capacity for selfishness as well as for generosity, for cruelty as well as compassion.
— Diane Berke in The Gentle Smile

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death" can be understood as the walk through our own dark side.
— Tian Dayton in The Quiet Voice of Soul

To battle a demon is to embrace it, to face it with clarity of vision and humility of the heart. To run from a demon is as effective as running from a rabid dog, for surely this only beckons the chase. Whatever we resist — persists. These demons, these parts of us that haunt us, torture us and reduce us, are the agents of change.... Without our demons we would grow spiritually flabby.
— Stephanie Ericsson in Companion Through the Darkness

Soulmaking means facing the shadow, the dark scary stuff hidden in old closets, the unbidden and forbidden dreams, the alien impulses.
— Mike Grosso in Soulmaking

All from Spirituality and Practice.com. Good stuff for this week.

"It can always be worse x"
We don't leave out the "x" do we?

This is not an improvement plan; it is not a situation in which you try to be better than you are now. It is something much softer and more openhearted than any of that. It involves learning how, once you have fully acknowledged the feeling of anger and the knowledge of who you are and what you do, to let it go. So whether it’s anger or craving or jealousy or fear or depression—whatever it might be—the notion is not to try to get rid of it, but to make friends with it. That means getting to know it completely, with some kind of softness, and learning how, once you’ve experienced it fully, to let go.”
— Pema Chodron

And Good Friday is pretty much the least comfortable day of the year.

Good for us; BAD Friday for Jesus."
~Axie
The Lapsed Catholic

Have a happy, nail Jesus to the cross day known as Good Friday. It is pouring down here. The skies have opened and it is coming down in bucket loads! So, those in rainy, snowy or crazy locations - be safe on those roads.

Ajahn Sumedho,

Now is the Knowing

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Life is a garden, dig it!! ~ Joe Dirt

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@Bliss thanks, I do dig it. Literally and metaphorically! Love to garden and pick fresh herbs from my garden to use in cooking. Oh yes, I can cook, when it isn't a chore.

"Intuition is a sense of knowing how to act spontaneously, without needing to know why. ~Sylvia Clare