On Pain

Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses
your understanding.

Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its
heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.

And could you keep your heart in wonder at the
daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem
less wondrous than your joy;

And you would accept the seasons of your heart,
even as you have always accepted the seasons that
pass over your fields.

And you would watch with serenity through the
winters of your grief.

Much of your pain is self-chosen.

It is the bitter potion by which the physician within
you heals your sick self.

Therefore trust the physician, and drink his remedy
in silence and tranquillity:

For his hand, though heavy and hard, is guided by
the tender hand of the Unseen,

And the cup he brings, though it burn your lips, has
been fashioned of the clay which the Potter has
moistened with His own sacred tears.

Khalil Gibran


My heart is bound up in the underlying feelings expressed by this master poet. Today I felt all the loneliness and all the kindness of humanity in my journey to repair what was broken. I have found that the struggles of daily life can present me with a magnificent magnifying glass into my inner self if I would but handle it properly. To understand the principle that pain and hardship are the building blocks of our strength and joy seems an impossible belief to embrace, but as Gibran wrote, "Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain." For me, this is not a practice I automatically act on, but a goal I have set for myself to know that accepting the bad and rising above it is what allows for a complete fulness of joy. When I look back at my moments of darkness with my looking glass I hope to be able to say:THAT was when I took one step closer to true happiness.

There is no frigate like a book ...

There is no Frigate like a Book
To take us Lands away,
Nor any Coursers like a Page
Of prancing Poetry –
This Traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of Toll –
How frugal is the Chariot
That bears a Human soul.
-Emily Dickinson

It borders on half a year since I last took the time to unload my footlocker of a brain outside of the classroom. In that time I have traveled through space and time around the world and back again. And while there remains no rest for the wicked or in my case late blooming student, I reflect on my experiences in returning to school with the above poem rooted in my consciousness. While I will be paying off my education for years to come I have somehow managed to divide myself from the fear of accumulating interest and monthly loan payments in the words of the reclusive Dickinson. There truly is no price I would not pay to succesfully navigate beyond the bounds of space and time through the active study of a well-trained mind. For when one meets with those who have attained that state of living in the world one can only say:that is what I want for myself and these are the associations I wish to make and keep. And for me all of this begins and ends with the "chariot that bears a human soul.