Tissue Wisdom

In opposition of its intense beauty, life can hurt. Bad.

It can hurt for everyone and for many reasons…

…an inevitable human experience.

I think if it hasn’t hurt, you might not be living.

A raw, pounding drum within, beating against the walls of your chest, from the most internal space of your body – it tightens your fibers and shortens your breath, it’s a battle cry heard and felt only by you.

Pain is there to tell us we’ve strayed, from ourselves. To alert us that we’ve started down a path not meant for us.

Pain is there to encourage us to make good on regrets.

Pain stretches our self-imposed limits exposing untapped powers.

Pain is there to tell us we’ve loved with everything we have.

Pain shows us that we’ve embraced something so deeply that its absence leaves an empty hollow inside.

Pain pushes us, stiff-bodied, onto the stage.

Pain is there to remind us that the control we seek over our lives is an illusive target.

Pain sets us to balance atop a narrow fence to view our options from above.

Pain is present. Pain is a test. Pain is an opportunity.

Pain indicates we may have lost something, but there is something waiting to be gained as well.

Pain is a chance for fresh start, altering what you have accepted to be reality and choosing something brighter.

I believe if we don’t allow ourselves to feel the pain, or simply choose not to, we may never recognize the alive that follows. We will miss grabbing hold of the extended hand that promises to take us somewhere better than where we are.

Feeling the pain, every searing ounce, allows us to harness its intense energy and transform it into awareness, purpose, progress, intent, and growth.

Pain is a fire able to melt away the walls or barricades that resistance may have built around us.

Pain is there to tell us that we have more to learn; that if we blink tightly and open our eyes once again, we can adjust our view. We may find more.

Pain is there to challenge you, to remind you how badly you want something or how unhealthy something is.

Pain can be the gateway to surrender, prompting you to throw your hands up from busying around trying to make things fit where they may not belong – to just let go.

Like climbing the hill of a roller coaster, it is consuming fear on the way up and surrender on the ride down – an immediate sense of relief as you move down the track. The subsequent hills are smaller and take less effort to climb.

Pain is stereotypically ugly, but isn’t it really beautiful, too? It is part of our walk; our one wild ride through this space.  It smudges a layer of rich paint onto our personal canvas, full of color – our story depicted in a unique blend of swirls and patterns.

Do not mask pain, do not numb pain, and do not hide from it. Grab on to it and squeeze out every last lesson contained.

Piles of crumpled tissues can be seen in two ways: balled up snot vessels or wisdom. I’ll go with the latter.

Curious…what beauty has pain brought you?

XOXO