Punishment

Punishment is always the great preserver of sin; treating it with respect, and honoring its enormity. What must be punished, MUST BE TRUE. And what is true MUST be eternal, and WILL be repeated endlessly.

-- A Course in Miracles, chapter 19

Taken out of context, it looks like The Course supports punishment, but it's the opposite, it is talking about the belief of the Ego, which is wrong.
So long as you believe "sin" must be punished, you are just making it real and perpetuating it. 

Laughter gives us distance

Laughter gives us distance. It allows us to step back from an event, deal with it and then move on. 
- Bob Newhart

And I think this is true whether it is directly connected to events in our own life or not. (Since they are all equally illusory anyway.) Large dozes of comedy, whatever works for one, is recommended, both for relaxation and for deeper healing.

Anne of Green Gables. And, we don't want our medicine

I really like the books of LM Montgomery. They are often regarded as childrens' or young-girls' books, but they reach well beyond their genre, and they are very funny and wise.

By far the darkest one is Rilla of Ingleside, because it relates to WW1.
In it, one character comments to another about the past two years which have been very difficult. And she asks her if she would exchange them for two years of happy times. And the other character said that she would not, because of how much she has changed and grown.
But they agree that they would not have the heart to ask for two more similarly hard years, and the older character says how it's remarkable that even if and when we recognize how hardship has made us grown, we never want more of that kind of medicine, which is why we are not ourselves in charge of our path.
I thought that exceptionally wise.

The first book in the loosely-connected series by the way is the famous Anne of Green Gables. I think Lucy Maud Montgomery did a fantastic job in making a series of books taking place through the life of Anne Shirley, and have them all fit but yet be independent. Some of them don't even have Anne as main character, which is true of Rilla (Anne's daughter), and Rainbow Valley, one of my favorites, which is about two sets of siblings. The most important set of siblings is not even in Anne's family, but the book still fits perfectly in the whole saga.
The books are pretty much independent, but I think one may find greater satisfaction by reading them in sequence.
Almost all of them can be found on paper, ebook, and audiobook. (Though I haven't been able to find the sixth one, Anne Of Ingleside, in audio. If anybody knows of it...)

What is nothing?

There is still a difference between something and nothing, but it is purely geometrical and there is nothing behind the geometry.

           -- Martin Gardner, "The Mathematical Magic Show"