Robert Ricciardelli
Last Minutes with ODEN from phos pictures on Vimeo.
Pain and death are part of life. To reject them is to reject life itself – Henry Ellis
When Oden dies the pain that confronts his owners is clearly real and visible to all. As people we can experience different kinds of pains however no matter what kind you have faced or might be facing today all pain is the evidence that something is either departing or needs to depart from our lives in order to make room for something new.
Our choice to live life our own way has meant that we live in a broken world that is inhabited by broken people. Anyway you turn and look you can spot pain and hurt. It doesn’t matter which economical or social class you live in or were born into you will, if you haven’t already, experience pain at some stage in your journey. There is no point in attempting to avoid it or pretend it is not there as pain is very much a part of life and as such we must embrace it, as much as we embrace laughter and joy, and allow it to the job it can do. In life more than often things are what you think about them or how you choose to see them. It is therefore natural that as people that spend most of our lives building walls of protection around us we are more easily attracted to joy and laughter. It is important though to understand that as good as these two are for the inner man and heart, they are unable to reproduce the fruits that pain can bring if we handle it the right way.
You see I believe that pain is used to clear stuff out of our lives where as laughter is there to add to us. Pain makes space and room for new things to enter our hearts so that we can laugh longer and better after it has completed the task it was sent for. I have come to understand that pain is the chisel that life uses in order to chip away those overgrown places that cover up who we really are within us, that prevent us from experiencing life the way it was meant to be. Jesus said, “to him who much has been forgiven will love much just like to him who little has been forgiven will love little.” When we finally find peace in our lives and know the forgiveness of our maker in our hearts much stuff is cleared out as it makes way for something far bigger to move in. So it is with pain as we allow it to level down those parts of our inner man that are unproductive. The more that is leveled down the more room we have to grow and invite new things in our lives that will add instead of taking away from them.
We need to understand that pain if approached with the right mentality has the potential to help us grow as people. Just like a body builder puts his muscles through the pain barrier to make them grow so pain can enlarge who we are. My physio once told me that pain can also be the signal your muscles and body send you to tell you that something is not quite right within you. This is the same when say for example someone who crosses our path acts in ways or says something that hurt us. Many of us get offended and walk away instead of taking the time to walk into the pain and be still. This approach of avoidance robs us of the opportunity to discover new things about us that are usually responsible for preventing our growth and development as people. Yes the person that hurt you was probably not right however consider that the hurt might have not been caused if that part of you that was hurt was stronger and perhaps fully healed. You see often we are susceptible to being hurt and experience pain because there are areas of our lives that have remained or become weak as they have been neglected, sheltered, and ill trained like a muscle that gets injured. It is far better to confront and grow than to protect and hide as confronting will better prepare you for the next time you face it, where as protecting will mean being permanently damaged.
The famous Violin maker Stradivarius always used the wood from the side of the tree that had been exposed to the storms. He said this wood gave the instrument a sound that the other side couldn’t. It added it character the sheltered side of the tree could never deliver. The storms we confront in life often bring pain with them. Unlike the tree we can turn around and run away from them or even avoid them altogether. Unfortunately, if you choose to do this you will be forsaking the opportunity to hear and release the melody that is packed within your heart, that is responsible for helping you to dance through life like a skillful dancer does instead of crawling and crying like a baby.
Many have and continue to spend their life and resources attempting to keep pain away. This choice means that they don’t accomplish anything else apart from building a shelter around them. They become people that are unable to relate to others as this approach doesn’t just keep pain out but also the life and all the other beautiful things it can offer if we are open. Their journey will not be one of progress but instead one that will go around in circles as they constantly walk around guarding the walls they built around them. Always remember that the peace and life we all want usually comes after we have allowed pain to do its job. Pain is meant to be a visitor in our lives and never a constant companion. It only sticks around when we close the fists of our hearts and hold on tight to the very things it is trying to remove as it makes room within you so that healthier and better things can come into your life.
Copyright 2011 – Pablo Giacopelli/www.uxlinlife.com
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In