Pushing through the Pain

“Waiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. But not knowing which to do is the worse kind of suffering.” ~Paul Coelho


“Pain and death are part of life. To reject them is to reject life itself.” ~Havelock Ellis


“Wisdom is nothing more than healed pain.” ~Robert Gary Lee


“Many of us spend our whole lives running from feeling with the mistaken belief that you cannot bear the pain. But you have already borne the pain. What you have not done is feel all you are beyond the pain.” ~ Saint Bartholomew


“Given the choice between the experience of pain and nothing, I would choose pain” ~William Faulkner


“One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: that word is love.” ~Sophocles


“When thought becomes excessively painful, action is the finest remedy” ~Salman Rushdie


WOW!  I could keep going on these pain quotes..... the list is endless.  As I have been taking inventory of all my jumbled up emotion lately, I began to realize that it is all a form of pain.  I've suffered long enough!


I didn't realize earlier this week that when I decided to replace the passion of anger with the passion of love that it was actually a remedy to take care of the pain in my life.  It just seemed like the only thing I hadn't tried.  These quotes have confirmed to me that I am on the right course.


When I explained to a friend what action I have decided to take regarding the intense emotion I've been feeling, she was concerned.  When I told her how I was going to love - deliberately and intentionally the person who has hurt me most - she remarked "It's going to hurt."  I agreed and told her I was aware of that but that I'm not afraid of hurting.  It was hard for me to verbalize why - although snippets from some of the quotes above were running through my mind.  You see - I believe that after one has dealt with pain, they then develop a tolerance or strength over it.  I particularly love Saint Bartholomew's quote.....  we all tend to try to avoid pain but that is actually pointless.  We can't avoid pain - it just happens.  We can try to ignore it or stuff it away but eventually it surfaces.  Once we deal with it, we become stronger.   What we don't realize when we are in pain, is that once we get through it, we come out ahead - and we begin to feel all that we are beyond the pain and experience the wisdom that comes with that.


The last two quotes above will keep me focused over the next few months while I love intentionally and deliberately - choosing to take action.  Choosing to love - not look for love but actually do the loving - without expectation, without assumption and without looking back.  Sometimes the pain will seep back in and I will fail and falter just a bit - but I will then embrace the pain, feel every ounce of it and heal.

By loving him, I in turn love myself and become more aware of who I am.  No matter the outcome, I gain victory in more ways than one.