Pain isn't gain. Pain is just, well, painful. Nobody wants pain, but sometimes it's a reminder that you are still alive, that you have another day to walk through this world.

Pain ushers you into this world, screaming and kicking. Pain will probably usher you into the next world, but there it will end.

Don't seek out pain, that's masochistic, but don't run from it either. Sometimes squaring your shoulders and walking through the maelstrom is all you need to do. You can be baptized in pain, and come out the other side a transformed human. (Just ask any survivor of a debilitating illness.)

Pain does change you, you have no choice in that.
© Jodie S. Frink