Richer

"In youth we feel richer for every new illusion;

in maturer years, for every one we lose."

-Madame Anne Sophie Swetchine, mystic (1782-1857)

“Parker Palmer offers an insight into the experience of disillusionment: when we are disillusioned, we are sad, defeated, empty, and perhaps feeling betrayed; something we believed or trusted in has been taken away. Palmer notes, however, that the word suggests that what we have lost is an illusion; we believed in something we thought was real, but it was not real at all. Rather than mourn the loss of illusion, we might want to consider accepting the ‘disillusionment’ with gratitude – after all, we’ve realized we trusted something that turned out to be more mirage than reality…

As the old Zen saying has it: “Barn burned down- now I can see the moon.” Our “barns” of innocence and ambition sometimes burn down, and we mourn all the accomplishments and personal meaning we were going to store in them – but now we can see a reality beyond the barn that before was hidden.”

- Arthur Gross-Schaefer and Steve Jacobsen, from article “Understanding Clergy Burnout” in Presence: An International Journal of Spiritual Direction.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Matthew 5:4