Infinite Ink

Life's teacher, named "pain"

SolitudeBY Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone;
For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.
Sing, and the hills will answer;
Sigh, it is lost on the air;
The echoes bound to a joyful sound,
But shrink from voicing care.

Rejoice, and men will seek you;
Grieve, and they turn and go;
They want full measure of all your pleasure,
But they do not need your woe.
Be glad, and your friends are many;
Be sad, and you lose them all,—
There are none to decline your nectared wine,
But alone you must drink life's gall.

Feast, and your halls are crowded;
Fast, and the world goes by.
Succeed and give, and it helps you live,
But no man can help you die.
There is room in the halls of pleasure
For a large and lordly train,
But one by one we must all file on
Through the narrow aisles of pain.

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Pain is difficult to write about. Not the least because sometimes it physically hurts to type or write.

Dr. Kelly Brogan describes the process of handling pain well:

"It is the art of embodying our humanity while transcending it. It can only come when you let go. What is letting go? Is it giving up? Walking away? Saying, forget it? Letting go is feeling into the design of it all, knowing that you are not the artist. It will never look the way you thought it would. You will be forever reminded that the things you most want may nearly kill you and the things you could barely tolerate brought you exactly what you needed. And all this just happens.

The patterns on the leaf grow without your conscious attention, just like your heart pumps and your lungs breathe without your doing. Letting go is zooming out and taking it all in. Feeling held by the grandeur as your microworld falls apart.

It's the hardest thing to do because our minds must be quieted for this to happen. We have to say shhhh....over and over and over again. We have to find that silence."

Think about it. Maybe it will help you deal with pain differently. And maybe that different way of handling pain will help you.