Wise Women: Quotes on Pain and Suffering

from the desk of Tonya Genison Prince:

My favorite season is fall and I love the holiday season but there was a bit of a tarnish on the silver bells this past year.  My father passed away a few months ago during the final days of summer.  As I type this I find that I am deleting so many words so know that there are so many more words behind the pain than the words that made it onto the page. What I have to say is in there somewhere but I just can't seem to articulate it.  Today is definitely a day where a few quotes are a must.  

Birds sing after a storm; why shouldn't people feel as free to delight in whatever remains to them? ~Rose F. Kennedy

The world is full of suffering, it is also full of overcoming it. ~Helen Keller

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved. ~ Helen Keller

Pain is never permanent. ~Teresa of Avila

Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional. ~M. Kathleen Casey

I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish that He didn't trust me so much. ~Mother Teresa

When the Japanese mend broken objects, they aggrandize the damage by filling the cracks with gold. They believe that when something's suffered damage and has a history it becomes more beautiful. ~Barbara Bloom

Like a plant that starts up in showers and sunshine and does not know which has best helped it to grow, it is difficult to say whether the hard things or the pleasant things did me the most good. ~Lucy Larcom

We must try not to sink beneath our anguish... but battle on. ~J.K. Rowling

Turn your wounds into wisdom. ~Oprah Winfrey