On Pain

It seems some people think that pain is special to them. Their pain is worse than anyone else’s. We all fall victim to that kind of thinking sometime, don’t we? But the truth is that pain belongs to all of us equally and it always passes just like joy. It is a teacher as is all our experience on this planet.

Kahlil Gibran from The Prophet once again:

And a woman spoke, saying, “Tell us of Pain.”

And he said:

Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your
understanding.

Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand
in the sun, so must you know pain.

And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your
life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy;

And you would accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have
always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields.

And you would watch with serenity through the winters of your grief.

Much of your pain is self-chosen.

It is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your
sick self.

Therefore trust the physician, and drink his remedy in silence and
tranquillity:

For his hand, though heavy and hard, is guided by the tender hand of
the Unseen,

And the cup he brings, though it burn your lips, has been fashioned
of the clay which the Potter has moistened with His own sacred tears.