Chapter Fifty Four: Pain

We cannot achieve personal enlightenment --

a clarification of our souls -- until we cease

deluding ourselves. We must accept that life

includes witnessimg and personally

experiencing pain.

Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls

-o0o-

I was haunted by a painful desire for her,

like the thirst of a voyageur in the desert.

My feelings burst. Regret panged within me.

Anoir Ou-Chad, Lemon Twist

-o0o-

Love cannot pain, desire can.

Nilesh Rathod, Destiny of Shattered Dreams

-o0o-

True love is many things and can survive

the strongest and most painful of times.

When love comes out the other side of a fire,

it may be scarred forever, but this bruised

love is somehow only greater

for havimg survived the pain.

John Garter Cash, House of Cash:

The Legacies of my Father, Johnny Cash

-p0o-

Love is never supposed to hurt.

Love is supposed to heal,

to be your haven from misery,

to make living fucking worthwhile.

Mia Asher, Arsen: A Broken Love Story

-o0o-

Love . . . It's a nice little trick if you can find it.

We had found it.

But now I knew finding love and holding

on to it were not the same thing.

Mary E. Pearson, The Beauty of Darkness

-o0o-

Losing Abby wasn't a story I remembered from

early childhood -- it was in my face, 

debilitating me like a sickness, robbing me

of my senses and physically, excruciatingly

painful. My mother's words echoed in my ear.

Abby was the girl I had to fight for, and

I went down fighting. None of it

was ever going to be enough.

Jamie McGuire, Walkimg Disaster

-o0o-

I'll never tell you to stop loving.

You see, I believe in hopeless love. Oh yes.

I believe in it with all my heart,

though you may discount the heart of

an old nanny like me. For love brings pain.

Real love means sacrifices and hurts

and all the thousand shocks of life.

But it also means beauty, true beauty.

Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Moonblood

-o0o-

You can run from the truth.

You can run and hide from the truth.

You can deny and avoid the truth.

But you cannot destroy the truth.

Nor you can make lie true.

You must know that love will always

uncover the truth.

Delano Johnson, Love Quotes

-o0o-

With Dante gone, time seemed to stand

still around me; the mornings just as cloudy

and dark as the evenings, as if the sun had

never decided to rise. There was no wind,

like the world was holding its breath along

with me, waiting for him to return.

Yvonne Woon, Life Eternal

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This Chapter is sponsored by Gucci.