Pain, beauty, peace

Telephone pole, NW 23^rd street, Portland, Oregon

I don’t usually think of pain as beautiful, or of Love being present there. But this picture sure struck me as beautiful, even in the midst of its owie-ness. My most frequent, reflexive response to pain in my life (either emotional or physical) has been to try to eradicate it as quickly as possible, to find what's wrong and then fix it. Let's just say that approach has proved less than satisfactory, :) so now I'm discovering what it's like to be more of an explorer than a patch master. Pain is information. If we move directly to erasing it without passing Go (passing through) or collecting $200 (the information and therefore the blessing), we likely will miss what it is that our world (body, mind, heart, God, universe) might be trying to tell us. And not only that, resisting our uncomfortable experience actually solidifies it in us further, increasing the length and intensity of our suffering. I am finding that often the most revealing and healing way through pain is first to give it my full attention, to really see it and experience it, and then to soften into it without resistance. Then it lets go. When we move into and through our experience this way, we can move beyond it into peace.