“You can’t see the glory of life if you haven’t seen the dark side of life.”

Their bodies are constantly bombarded by visceral warning signs, and, in an attempt to control these processes, they often become expert at ignoring their gut feelings and in numbing awareness of what is played out inside. They learn to hide from their selves.

Trauma really does confront you with the best and the worst. You see the horrendous things that people do to each other, but you also see resiliency, the power of love, the power of caring.

People have a range of capacities to deal with overwhelming experience.

The power of commitment, the power of commitment to oneself, the knowledge that there are things that are larger than our individual survival. And in some ways, I don’t think you can appreciate the glory of life unless you also know the dark side of life

The single most important issue for traumatized people is to find a sense of safety in their own bodies.

The parent-child connection is the most powerful mental health intervention known to mankind.

In the dark times Will there also be singing? Yes, there will also be singing. About the dark times.

I am hopelessly divided between the dark and the good, the rebel and the saint, the sex maniac and the monk, the poet and the priest, the demagogue and the populist. Pen to paper, I put it all down – I’m out on a limb here, so watch my back.

Since September it’s just gotten colder and colder. There’s less daylight now, I’ve noticed too. This can only mean one thing – the sun is going out. In a few more months the Earth will be a dark and lifeless ball of ice. Dad says the sun isn’t going out.

The classic comedian says there’s nothing that’s taboo; if you laugh at one thing you’ve got to laugh at everything, that comedy is taking people to dark areas and showing them the light.

There’s a terrible sense of dread filtering across America at the moment and it’s not simply because of the continuing fear of terrorism and the fact that the nation is at war. It’s more frightening than that.

The thing I’ve noticed about life is that it just keeps coming at you. And it can be a real bummer. What you need to remember is that you’re not alone.

Perhaps naively I thought people understand what humor was, that it was invented by the human race to cope with the dark areas of life, problems and terrors.

Grace works that way. It’s a kind word from a gentle person with an impossible prayer. It’s a force sometimes transmitted best hand to hand in a dark place.