Pain...

Pain is often the beginning of a journey.

I don't know how often it starts us moving, but I think it's a major cause.  To me, there are two responses to pain: sit in it, or move on.

I have sat in pain.  

It doesn't change the pain.  It acknowledges it;  it experiences its depth and edges; sitting in it can even allow me to learn from it.  The pain may lesson with time, but it remains, a place of tenderness, or perhaps a scar.

I have also been pushed by pain.  When the sitting in it just doesn't work.  Maybe there's too much pain to handle, or perhaps, it's a pain that's paralyzing.  Sometimes, I think, one pain can lead to another, they can feed from each other or avalanche into one another.  I can't sit in these pains. 

It's too much.  I must move.

I think it's easy to sit where we're comfortable.  There's no reason to move when surrounded by comfort, little motivation to change or adjust.  I've felt this too.  I tell myself I'm growing or changing, beginning a new direction, but I like the steadiness of what I've known. 

I don't think pain is like that.  Pain demands a reaction.  We can choose to sit, but that is a choice.

Pain moves us.  It shapes us.

I'm not sure I like that.
But I guess I don't have to, eh?