“It’s all fine to say, “Time will heal everything, this too shall pass away. People will forget”—and things like that when you are not involved, but when you are there is no passage of time, people do not forget and you are in the middle of something that does not change.”
— John Steinbeck
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Have you ever felt like time completely stopped during your deepest pain, while the rest of the world just kept moving? As John Steinbeck wisely noted: “It’s all fine to say, 'Time will heal everything, this too shall pass away...' but when you are there is no passage of time.” Let's normalize the messy, non-linear journey of healing instead of rushing through our grief. Drop a ❤️ if you've ever felt this deeply, and share how you navigate your hardest seasons in the comments below.
About this quote
We have all heard the well-meaning platitudes during our darkest hours: 'Time heals all wounds' or 'This too shall pass.' From the outside looking in, these words feel comforting, a promise of a lighter tomorrow. But when you find yourself in the suffocating epicenter of grief, heartbreak, or trauma, time seems to maliciously grind to a halt. In those moments, the clock stops ticking, memories refuse to fade, and you feel trapped forever in an unchanging landscape of pain. It is a profoundly lonely experience, making us feel broken for not 'moving on' as quickly as the world expects us to. Yet, acknowledging this raw truth is the first step toward genuine emotional healing and self-compassion. John Steinbeck’s words remind us that healing is not a linear race, nor is it about erasing the past. Instead of fighting the stillness or pretending the pain doesn't exist, we must grant ourselves the grace to simply *be* in the hard moments. Life advice often rushes us toward the finish line, but true resilience is born in the messy, agonizing middle where we learn to carry what feels unchangeable until, slowly and on our own terms, the weight begins to shift.
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Photo by Furkan Salihoğlu on Pexels
