A familiar yoga adage comes to mind as I consider the loss of a relationship in my life — Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional. Truthfully, there is no sense in avoiding pain. It is a natural part of life and teaches us powerful personal lessons. Haven’t we all witnessed ourselves moving too fast and then paying with consequences like a burnt tongue from a too-hot coffee or a sprained limb from an unbalanced stride or a broken heart from an unresolvable love? Pain, when allowed and accepted, washes through us cleansing and clarifying our movement forward. Pain, when avoided and denied, becomes suffering.
Suffering signals a lapse into recycling inner narratives of self-doubt, fault-finding and pity-partying. There is no inner movement, and we find ourselves stuck and festering in self-inflicted sorrow. Years may pass without joy, which is why I wrote the poem below, which can be found in my book titled, Mad Woman Laughing. It is my reminder to unwrap the joy hidden in every experience.
Not-so-Hidden Movement
Suffering and pain lie pregnant with hidden purpose.
All experience is a gift, an opportunity to unwrap joy.
Joy lives in the calm core of being, in the very centre
of silence, where all creation rests in full bloom.
The mother of creation, Joy cracks us wide open,
and we pour forth her cornucopia.
Abundant possibilities are now present.
Movement is everywhere.
May painfilled tears purify hearts so joy enters fully. Namaste.
