Choosing Beauty From Ashes
Pain can drive you into isolation from the world around you even as you walk around in it. Sometimes the tears that don't show sting more than those that do. Sometimes deep sadness is enough to make a person feel trapped in the middle of an open field. Throbbing like an omnipresent heartbeat, it pounds out the bass of the incorrigible soundtrack of your life that no one else can hear. But pain doesn't have to happen in the absence of happiness. What? How does that make sense? How is that even possible? It's possible because to accept distress with open arms rather than trying to hide from it is a decision we're inherently capable of making. We can learn to welcome the pain because it tears us down in a way that builds us up. Really? You ask. Yes, really. I've done it. Think about the difference between an athlete and a slave laborer. B oth roles require incredible amounts of exertion for extended periods of time, but th