Quote #111: Wally Mayton

Greetings! As a retired pastor and current Parish Associate serving Memorial Presbyterian Church in Midland, I embrace fully the mission and objectives of the Midland Area Wellbeing Coalition. I participate enthusiastically. I welcome this opportunity to share a quote that reveals what I consider to be our shared calling to care for ourselves as well as for others. A quote that refreshes and renews me is “I hurt because it mattered,” spoken by contemporary author and novelist John Green.

I encounter in my life and in the life of others the impact of loss and its resulting hurt. Grief is a dynamic process that influences my ability to persevere through hurt. I search for what remains steadfast in the midst of loss and its characteristic grief. That foundational piece for my endurance and healing is “I hurt because it mattered.” I concede that there is much that matters. There are things as experiences, places, events, or lessons. There are relationships. People in my life matter. When there is hurt, I call upon what is a storehouse of what I know and claim as what mattered. It appears probable that it is better to have loved and lost than not to have loved at all (Poet Alfred Lord Tennyson). I renew and rest in the security of my desire to invest in what has mattered and what matters. My wellbeing, especially when there is hurt, depends upon my acceptance. I affirm and own, “It hurts because it mattered.”

Wellbeing is conditional. I depend on the encouragement I receive through the initiative of the Midland Area Well-Being Coalition and its Quotes to Live By Series.

As a fellow learner and neighbor faithfully, Wally Mayton