I’ve logged more experience than most with simplicity and the complexity you discover inside simplicity, minimalism and asocial behavior, endurance and landscape.
Here is the truth: I think some deep wisdom inside me (a) sensed the stress, (b) was terrified for me, and (c) gave me something new and hard to focus on in order to prevent me from lapsing into a despair coma — and also to keep me from having a jelly jar of wine in my hand.
Subscribe and Save up to 55%
Purchase the issue or subscribe to read this selection.
Already a subscriber? Sign in.
Lawrence Shainberg
Lawrence Shainberg says, “The only durable freedom from pain lies in its absolute acceptance” [“Two Mirrors Facing Each Other,” Dog-Eared Page, August 2018]. This quotation is now written in my journal, on a sticky note on my bathroom mirror, and on a card next to a photograph of my mother, whose death last year I have definitely not accepted. I’m grateful to Shainberg for this important piece of wisdom.
Perhaps the worst part of pain is our fight against it: “I don’t want to have these aches and pains! I don’t want to deal with my past mistakes! I don’t want to live the rest of my life without my mother!”
Maybe instead we need to look at pain as a condition of our existence.