Pain is not something we experience. Pain is a relationship. Not everyone will find love, but pain will find everyone. We all have it, or will. Some of us are pathetically intimate with it. It is like breath or a sunrise, always flowing in rhythm. Often it shows up like an unexpected guest and stays too long and leaves our house a mess. Pain can hold you down, set you free or guide you like a GPS. And unlike your cell phone, pain has total coverage, no matter where you go.
Pain is like a Facebook friend that pokes you over and over. It can come in an instant or grow like a tomato plant. Few of us ever see pain as a gift, however. But is can be.
Without pain, we would never fully appreciate joy. That said, pain is nothing to seek out. Only fools and fanatics do such a thing. Pain will come on its own schedule and stay until it is finished. Or it may stay forever. When that happens, pain becomes either your strength or your weakness. It is your choice. You can endure pain, or you can use it.
Pain simply doesn’t give a rat’s fuzzy rear how you see it or use it. It does not care if you are religious or a liberal or a conservative. It is unbiased and treats everyone exactly the same, good, bad, beautiful or ugly. In this respect, pain is possibly the most pure thing we will feel on this planet. A shark is the perfect feeding machine. Pain is the perfect focusing machine. If you have ever had a heart attack, extreme back pain, a violent injury or cancer, you understand pain like an athlete understands competition.
In the end, no one gets out of this world alive. And no one avoids pain while they are here. So use it while you can. Truth is, you really don’t have a choice.
