The Healing Journey

November 14, 2024

“The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.”
— Harriet Beecher Stowe

For 12 years, Thomas Moore was a monk in the Servites, a Catholic religious order. He later became a psychotherapist, whose writings have been influenced by Carl Jung. He is the author of such bestsellers as “Care of the Soul,” “Soul Mates” and “The Re-enchantment of Everyday Life.” The following excerpt is taken from “The Education of the Heart”:

“No mysteries are more profound and confounding than loss, suffering, ending, illness and death. the death of someone close reminds us of what is important and may give us back our soul, but still, the cruelties of life seem senseless. They tarnish our optimism and challenge our faith and yet, oddly, they retain the power to make us ever more human. They do so only when we give them attention and speak for, ritualize and keep in memory events that hurt, confuse and keep us in the dark.

“Modern psychology has manufactured a philosophy of life, with goals of adjustment, normalcy, mental hygiene and correctness. But actual life demands a more inclusive worldview that honors the gaps and failures that bring both pain and humanity. We need to respect the mysteries of death without understanding them and to express our confusion and pain so as to create a communal and honest humanity.”

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