"From below the silence a strong, sweet feeling began to rise. I was meeting the center of the earth and she was love, a love which supported and embraced everything without exception. A love which drew back from nothing, no matter how horrible. I wept with gratitude as that love enfolded me. I understood with my whole body how ridiculous it was for me to strain to hold myself up. All my life I had been completely supported by this love at the center of the earth, but I hadn't noticed because I was always trying to rise above life. I could have surrendered to it. I could have nestled into this mother's arms and lived there safely. I felt compassion and pity for my lifetime of needless, exhausting striving."