14 Quotes by Michael Bihovsky

I can only imagine how hard it must be for you, the friends and caretakers, to be there for us when you know in your heart that there is nothing you can do to make it better. So I want to tell you right now that you CAN make it better. You do. Just by being there. Just by reaching out, and making time and space for us in your lives and in your hearts. Just by saying, “I know I can never understand what you’re going through – but I believe you. And I love you. And I’m here.

It devastates me to no end that people who radiate nothing but joy into the universe seem too often to have so little left for themselves.

Remember that healing others may very well be the clearest path to healing ourselves.

I move my arm through the airLike I am dancing through timeand spaceLike a child discovering my working bodyFor the very first timeI smile and laughGiddy and delightedAt what once escaped my notice for 29 yearsHow wonderful would life beIf we could rediscover itWith each new sunrise?To awaken to ourselvesAnd witnessEvery breathEvery soundEvery sight, feeling, and movementAs the miracle it is?

To those in need of healing,Who can never quite be healed:May curses be your blessing,And may weakness be your shield.To feel despite the numbness,And to hear the silent sound.To see there still is meaningWhen no answers can be found.I hope you’ll keep on searching,While you also search no more.For know that sometimes healingIs far different andfar purer andfar greaterthan a cure.

I have found that the people whom society has deemed to be the weakest are inevitably the strongest.

We have a genuine and devastating epidemic of opiate abuse in this country, and it is of critical importance that this problem be addressed. But we must do so in a way that doesn’t cut off an effective (and often the only) treatment for the chronically ill, many of whom are able to function in this world at all only because of the small respite that responsible opiate use provides.

Empathy is not the same as approval. And explaining something is not the same as excusing it. But if you want to change people, if you want to reduce terrible things like domestic violence, first you need to understand that such monsters do not usually come out of nowhere. They are usually created, in a stream of abuse that can go back for generations.

Usually I take this opportunity to say something inspiring, about how my illness has changed me for the better and given me a clear purpose in life for both the work I do and the person I want to be. While all these things are true, the fact is that sometimes I'm in a physical state where I just don’t have it in me to be inspirational. And that’s all right – inspirational words are meaningless without the context of genuine human struggle.