After my grandmother died, we had the painful, and enlightening, task of cleaning out her house, a museum of memories.

A positive-thought adherent, throughout her life, she saved meaningful quotes and copied down inspiring verses.  Along with the above note, I found this typed passage pinned to her office bulletin board.

“Healing is about opening our hearts, not closing them.  It is about softening the places in us that won’t let love in.  Healing is a process.  It is about rocking back and forth between the abuse of the past and the fullness of the present and being in the present more and more of the time…The purpose of healing is to be awake.  And to live while you are alive instead of dying while you are alive.”

from When Food is Love by Geneen Roth