Broken Open Quotes

“Joseph Campbell calls the “hero’s path.” Some of us need a cataclysmic event to find our way toward “the center of our own existence.”
― Elizabeth Lesser, Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow

“where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves.”
― Elizabeth Lesser, Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow

“those who are willing to enter the woods of self-examination in order to retrieve what was never really lost.”
― Elizabeth Lesser, Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow

“How can I stay awake even when it hurts? What might those secrets at dawn be? Why am I so afraid to slow down and listen? What will it take for my longing for wakefulness to become stronger than my fear of change?”
― Elizabeth Lesser, Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow

“mythical phoenix bird who remains awake through the fires of change, rises from the ashes of death, and is reborn into his most vibrant and enlightened self.”
― Elizabeth Lesser, Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow

“The Persian poet Rumi says, The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don’t go back to sleep. You must ask for what you really want. Don’t go back to sleep. People are going back and forth across the doorsill where the two worlds touch. The door is round and open. Don’t go back to sleep. I”
― Elizabeth Lesser, Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow

“In their most broken moments they were brought to their knees; they were humbled; they were opened.”
― Elizabeth Lesser, Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow

“To be human is to be lost in the woods.”
― Elizabeth Lesser, Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow

“Perhaps a Once-Born person awakens one morning and feels the beckoning finger of fate loosening disturbing questions: “Is this all there is to life? Will I always feel the same? Do I not have some purpose to fulfill, some greater kindness to give, some inner freedom to taste?” And then he gets out of bed and dresses for work, and he doesn’t attend to the soul’s questions. The next morning, and all the next mornings, he lives as if the soul was a figment of a flighty imagination. This inattention makes him confused, or numb, or sad, or angry. A Twice-Born person pays attention when the soul pokes its head through the clouds of a half-lived life. Whether through choice or calamity, the Twice-Born person goes into the woods, loses the straight way, makes mistakes, suffers loss, and confronts that which needs to change within himself in order to live a more genuine and radiant life.”
― Elizabeth Lesser, Broken Open: How difficult times can help us grow

“His grief at your leaving is also his fear of losing the power he has had for lifetimes. Those days are over for him, and he is in turmoil. But if you are to help him on his soul's quest, you will leave him. It is your job--your sacred contract--to free him, and to free yourself.”
― Elizabeth Lesser, Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow

“Life would always be quirky, dynamic, changing, and messy. The”
― Elizabeth Lesser, Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow

“Drum sounds rise on the air, and with them, my heart. A voice inside the beat says, I know you are tired, but come. This is the way. —RUMI”
― Elizabeth Lesser, Broken Open: How difficult times can help us grow

“Let the young rain of tears come, Let the calm hands of grief come. It’s not all as evil as you think. —ROLF JACOBSEN”
― Elizabeth Lesser, Broken Open: How difficult times can help us grow

“grief is good—that it is a sign of how well we have loved. And”
― Elizabeth Lesser, Broken Open: How difficult times can help us grow

“In the middle of the journey of our life I found myself within a dark woods Where the straight way was lost. —DANTE ALIGHIERI”
― Elizabeth Lesser, Broken Open: How difficult times can help us grow

“We’re all bozos on the bus, so we might as well sit back and enjoy the ride. —WAVY GRAVY”
― Elizabeth Lesser, Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow