wisdom embedded in darkness

"Often when we hear the word depression, we have a pathological view of it, do we not?  It's something to fear, to avoid, to run from, to hope like heck it never happens to me.  And yet depression is a worthy and essential (emphasis added) part of life that builds the capacity for depth. What enables you to carve out these deeper and deeper spaces through your own suffering is the capacity to embody more of the spiritual.  In this way the nervous system is the most spiritual part of the body because it is empty.  There's nothing in there; it's dark.

-- William Bento, PhD, p. 208, The Counselor as if soul and spirit matter, (Anthroposophic Press,April 2015)