(1) How to Live Unhappily Ever After: Augusten Burroughs on the upside of being downbeat, and embracing loss and anger

“But holes are interesting things. As it happens, we human beings are able to live just fine with many holes of many sizes and shapes. Pleasure, love, compassion, fulfillment; these things do not leak out of holes of any size. So we can be filled with holes and loss and wide expanses of unhealed geography—and we can also be excited by life and in love and content at the exact same moment.

This is among the oldest, deepest, most primal truths: The facts of life may be, at times, unbearably painful. But the core, the bones of life are generous beyond all reason or belief. Those things which ought to kill us do not. This should be taken as encouragement to continue.”

(2) The Myth of Fingerprints by Paul Simon

He said there’s no doubt about it
It was the myth of fingerprints
That’s why we must learn to live alone

(3) Nests Drawn From Heartbreak (WSJ)

(3a) Graceland by Paul Simon

And I see losing love
Is like a window in your heart
Everybody sees you’re blown apart
Everybody feels the wind blow

(4) A related quote from Arise from Darkness by Fr. Benedict J. Groeschel, C.F.R.

“In contemporary society, we deny the existence of the mysterious. Many things are mysterious—life, love, darkness—but what is more mysterious than eternity? If you can’t cope with mystery, this life is going to drive you mad or make you cynical or terribly depressed. Life is filled with many unanswered questions. To be honest, if we did not seek answers to these questions, we’d all be sheep. Mystery gives suffering humanity its greatest gift.”