“It’s hard at times, but it makes a kid strong in ways that most people can’t understand. Teaches them that even though people are left behind, new ones will inevitable take their place; that every place has something good – and bad – to offer. It makes a kid grow up fast.”

“Like everyone else, you want to learn the way to win, but never to accept the way to lose, to accept defeat, to learn to die is to be liberated from it. So when tomorrow comes, you must free your ambitious mind, and learn the art of dying.”

“Remember an arrow can only be shot by pulling it backwards; so when you feel like life is dragging you down with difficulties, it simply means that it’s going to launch you to something great. So just focus and keep aiming – Unknown”

“When you claim your power and follow your heart, by the time you reach any obstacles you see off in the distance, they will have been removed for you.”

“…[M]ost of us have figured out that we have to do what’s in front of us and keep doing it. We clean up beaches after oil spills. We rebuild whole towns after hurricanes and tornadoes. We return calls and library books. We get people water. Some of us even pray. Every time we choose the good action or response, the decent, the valuable, it builds, incrementally, to renewal, resurrection, the place of newness, freedom, justice. The equation is: life, death, resurrection, hope. The horror is real, and so you make casseroles for your neighbor, organize an overseas clothing drive, and do your laundry. You can also offer to do other people’s laundry if they have recently had any random babies or surgeries.We live stitch by stitch, when we’re lucky. If you fixate on the big picture, the whole shebang, the overview, you miss the stitching. And maybe the stitching is crude, or it is unraveling, but if it were precise, we’d pretend that life was just fine and running like a Swiss watch. That’s not helpful if on the inside our understanding is that life is more often a cuckoo clock with rusty gears.”

“Hard times are like thunder. They make a lot of noise but do little harm. Don’t fear hard times.”

“Why wait? So precious is this life—this gift—this temporary blindness. Burn and drown and embrace the false dark, then grasp the unthinkable height of resulting joy. For in the end, in the light of truth when the flesh is cast off, there is nothing but this.”

“The way I see it, hard times aren’t only about money,or drought,or dust.Hard times are about losing spirit,and hope,and what happens when dreams dry up.”

“We all go through hard times in life. It’s a part of being alive and it’s the reality we all have to deal with. There are times we forget our value as a person because we are so blinded with these thoughts of loneliness, emptiness and ego. Somewhere along the road we become numbed with all the frustrations and dissatisfaction. But life itself isn’t always about darkness and sadness, Life is also filled with colors and that makes it beautiful. Along this path of darkness there’s always light waiting to be seen by our daunted hearts. Our heart is gifted to see this light. It may be hiding behind those circumstances that we encounter; in a stranger we just met at an unexpected place; a family who has been always there but you just ignored because of your imperfect relationship with them; it might be a long time friend you have or a friend you just met. Open your heart and you will see how blessed you are to have them all in your life. Sometimes they are the light that shines your path in some dark phases of life. Don’t lose hope”

“No matter how bad things are, you can always make things worse.”

“Biker George says that life can be hard & it’s even harder if you don’t have Christ.”

“And hard times are good in their own way, too. Because the only way you can achieve true happiness is if you experience true sadness as well. It’s all about light and shade. Balance.”

“A sense of the divine presence and indwelling bears the soul towards heaven as upon the wings of eagles.”

“Often, moreover, it is…that aspect of our being that society finds eccentric, ridiculous, or disagreeable, that holds our sweet waters, our secret well of happiness, the key to our equanimity in malevolent climes.”