It’s human nature to want to protect ourselves from pain. Not just physical pain, but emotional pain, too. But, it’s all experience and it all has a purpose. We’re here to have a human experience on this spinning ball of dust, hurling itself through the cosmos… and it’s all so we can experience what it means to be human.
What it is to love and be loved, have joy and sorrow. The human experience is about all of it and it all serves a purpose. It may be decades before we understand all of it, if we understand it all. But, we’re not called to understand it, we’re called to experience it.
To experience the unique beauty of what it means to be human; all of the moments that are exquisite simply because they happened. The extraordinary joy that lives in moments of celebration, and aching beauty found in the deepest heartbreak. There’s nothing meant to be avoided, because it’s all there for you. It is yours. Welcome it. Welcome all of it, because it all matters and it belongs to you.
It’s not easy in the moment to accept sorrow and tragedy, and that’s ok. But once you’re able to catch your breath and stand to your feet, don’t be afraid to look at the pain. Sit with it and allow yourself to do its work. To swirl around the air and into your lungs. No time limits, no rush, just be with it. It’s changing things inside of you and shaping you in the most remarkable ways.