Joy Born of Pain

Nothing is born without bleeding and tearing – our own births, the birth of every living thing on this planet.  We are all born clawing our way into this world from the world we were in before.  The plants as they make their way through the soil to the surface.  The day as the sun’s rays make their way across the horizon.  It is all abrupt, penetrating, hard.  I used to believe that we needed sorrow to recognize joy, that we needed tears to know laughter.  I have since learned they do not travel side by side.  It is the sorrow that gives birth to the joy.  The tears that give birth to the laughter.  The disappointments are what will lead you to your love; they will birth your capacity to love and be loved wholly.  People let the pain shut them down never realizing that the pain is there to open us up, to prepare us to give birth to beauty, to love, to life.