Ouch

Life hurts.  As children, we do not have the ability to comprehend why life hurts so we begin the process of avoiding our pain.  Most of us age without developing the skill of sitting with our injuries.   We all regularly experience loss, rejection, sadness, disappointment and change, and often before lunch time.

We spend much of our energy running from this truth.  We eat, we gossip, we plan, we blame, we stare at screens and most damagingly, we create distance between ourself and others - all to avoid the ache within.

What if as children, young adults or even as older adults we learned to feel our torment.  For living with discomfort is a skill we must practice.  It does not come naturally to sit with our emotional or physical wounds.  We must train our mind to stay when it wants to run away.

It is instinctual to seek comfort from that which distresses us.  We must work hard to redirect this instinct. Or better said, we must work to remind our mind that our heart and soul can handle hurt.

When we meet the pain of rejection, the ache of loss, the searing pain of life we connect to the deepest part of ourself.  The part of ourself that knows we can handle life's hurts and grow stronger from them.

When we cry, moan, and crumble under the weight of heartache, we come to know joy.  Within our our full human experience of ache and fulfillment, we find peace.

May we purposefully train ourselves to fully feel the agony of living.  Pain is the pathway to peace.

If we spend the rest of days, honing the skill of sitting with our pain, it would be a life well lived.   In our hurt, we find the light of love and compassion for our self and others.

Love blossoms from sorrow.  May we sit with our sorrow and watch love bloom.