Marya Hornbacher

That state of devastation, of despair — a state we fear and run from, most of us, all our lives — is a spiritual state. It does not feel like it at the time. It feels powerfully, absolutely alone. We have reached an ending; we know that the path we've been on goes no further or leads only deeper into a private hell. It is what they call the dark night of the soul.

But it is a spiritual state: because in that darkness, we become aware of a spiritual hunger that we know must be fed. And that awareness of ourselves as spiritual beings is in fact a gift. It is a turning point. We reach an ending, yes, but it is at that ending where we hear our spirits, which we'd thought were long buried or dead, choke back to life.

-Marya Hornbacher Waiting page 2