Sweet Are the Uses of Adversity

The Light Above My Bed 

This is my second full day in the physical rehabilitation hospital. Their signs tell me that they are in the top 4% in the nation (by many standards) and from what I’ve witnessed today, I’d put them at the top! What an interesting, knowledgeable, kind, compassionate, encouraging group of young people I’m getting to know! The art on the walls of this facility is quirky and beautiful. (My room has photos of peanuts doing odd things, and a hugely detailed lady bug on an iris). The walls are in contrasting colors of calm, the rest is glass, which shows off state-of-the-art equipment and inspiring quotes. Seeing the world through the lens of forced hospitalization is different, without a doubt. We create our own bubbles, and when forced into a new one, we see through new eyes.


“Thou art right, immortal Shakespeare, great poet of humanity:

‘Sweet are the uses of adversity;

Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,

Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.’

Trials teach mortals not to lean on a material staff, — a broken reed, which pierces the heart. We do not half remember this in the sunshine of joy and prosperity. Sorrow is salutary. Through great tribulation we enter the kingdom. Trials are proofs of God’s care. Spiritual development germinates not from seed sown in the soil of material hopes, but when these decay, Love propagates anew the higher joys of Spirit, which have no taint of earth. Each successive stage of experience unfolds new views of divine goodness and love.”
Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 66:1-16

“There are two diametrically opposed ways of seeing your brother. They must both be in your mind, because you are the perceiver. They must also be in his, because you are perceiving him. See him through the Holy Spirit in his mind, and you will recognize Him in yours. What you acknowledge in your brother you are acknowledging in yourself, and what you share you strengthen.”
A Course in Miracles T-5.III.3:1-5