So we must learn, in this twisted age, that the ultimate therapy is to identify our own pain with the pain of others, and then band together to resist the conditions that create our common malady...As we learn to see our own plight in the lives of our brothers and sisters we will begin to find health. Therapy involves identifying and building communities of concern. Only so can we heal ourselves.
~ from 40 DAY JOURNEY WITH PARKER PALMER, edited by Henry F. French
The experience of transcendence occurs within the nature of things -- our nature. A small mustard-seed grows into a tree big enough for birds to come and roost in its branches. To try to make it grow faster or slower would be absurd and counterproductive. It is the same when we experience the growth of Divine Love in our hearts as we let the husk of the ego drop away and like seed we die to self that we may fulfill the destiny that is our true meaning, that the potential of life within us may come to fruition.
