“It requires a tremendous leap of faith to imagine that your own childhood—punctuated with pain, loss, and hurt-­-may, in fact, be a gift. Certainly the unhappiness you felt was not, in itself, a blessing; but in response to that pain, you learned to cultivate a powerful intuition, a heightened sensitivity, and a passionate devotion to healing and love that burns deep within you—and there are gifts that may be recognized, honored, and cultivated. You are not broken; childhood suffering is not a mortal wound.”   Wayne Muller

“In our lives we are faced with a set of core issues that resurface again and again in different settings, with different people, at different times. These issues involve our relation­ship with the world, with ourselves, with our Higher Power. These are our life lessons.” Stephanie Covington and Liana Beckett

Many parents hope to succeed through their children, while using the same beliefs that guaranteed their failures: that children will become well-adjusted when pressured by criticism, discounting, and shame; that control teaches skills in human relationshiops; that spontaneity and joy are suspect.”    B. F. Stan Monaghan

“When the family energy is focused on the problem of the adult rather than on the needs of the children, the results for the children are the state of not knowing they come first, the state of believing that they have to fix the situation, and the state of believing that life is about surviving instead of enjoying and that the meaning of life is to get through the struggle of life.”      Cathleen Brooks

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