Text of the meditation
The Never-Ending Gladness awaits your homecoming. As the falling rain prepares the earth for the future crops of grain and fruit, so the rains of many sorrows showering upon the heart prepare and mellow it for the coming of that wisdom which perfects the mind and gladdens the heart.
As the clouds darken the earth only to cool and fructify it, so the clouds of grief cast a shadow over the heart to prepare it for nobler things. The hour of sorrow is the hour of reverence. It puts an end to the shallow sneer, the ribald jest, the cruel calumny; it softens the heart with sympathy, and enriches the mind with thoughtfulness.
Wisdom is mainly the recollection of all that was learned through sorrow. Do not think that your sorrow will remain; it will pass away like a cloud. Where self ends, grief passes away.
James Allen (1864–1912), Book of Meditations for Every Day in the Year (1913) – public-domain text, gently modernised.
The original 1913 text is in the public domain.
