“Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation”, by Parker J. Palmer

Pg. 63

One of the hardest things we must do sometimes is to be present to another person’s pain without trying to “fix” it, to simply stand respectfully at the edge of that person’s mystery and misery. Standing there, we feel useless and powerless, which is exactly how a depressed person feels — and our unconscious need as Job’s comforters is to reassure ourselves that we are not like the sad soul before us.

“Listening to the Light”, by Jim Pym

Page 22:

I have discovered that we can all contact the Spirit within us. We do not need the external aid of special ministers or special rituals. Through this Spirit, ordinary people have the potential to become extraordinary. Through It, I have come to realize that ordinary people are extraordinary. Because, in the words of Tennyson, this Spirit is ‘Closer… than breathing, nearer than hands and feet.’ It is there whether we acknowledge it or not, but when we do recognize it, and in the silence provide a space for it to act within our consciousness, It can transform our lives , and the lives of all around us.