Pain

This is an excerpt from Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet.  I was playing Library Angel. You know when you stand in front of your books and ask a question and then just randomly open a book? Oh, I thought everybody did that.  Anyway, I had forgotten what a wonderful book this is. I read it when I was 13 or 14 years old. It is worn out and has pencil markings and underlines.  I had what I consider to be a spiritual awakening around that time, and it was one born from pain.

And a woman spoke, saying, Tell us of Pain.

And he said:

Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.

Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.

And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy;

And you would accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields.

And you would watch with serenity through the winters of your grief.

Much of your pain is self-chosen.

It is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.

Therefore trust the physician, and drink his remedy in silence and tranquility:

For his hand, though heavy and hard, is guided by the tender hand of the Unseen.

And the cup he brings, though it burn your lips, has been fashioned of the clay which the Potter has moistened with His own sacred tears.