Pain is an inescapable part of the human journey, a series of gut-wrenching courses in the curriculum of life. Whether through heartbreak, illness, abuse, or loss, each of us will be initiated by sorrow’s sacred rites of passage. These crucibles crack us open, spilling us out of our comfort and forcing a reckoning with our vulnerability. Yet within these intensely challenging periods can also emerge our greatest gifts.
For contained within the agonizing chrysalis of suffering is the possibility of profound transformation, of being reborn with deeper wisdom, resilience and authenticity. When the tectonic plates of our existence undergo a violent shift, we are rendered intimate witnesses to our own deconstruction and disintegration. Like a broken glass vase, our previously held identity, beliefs and illusions lay scattered in pieces. And it is into this shatter zone that we’re abruptly thrust – a place of primal spiritual homelessness that renders us stripped bare. It is here, amidst the anguish and chaos, that the awakening happens. An inexplicable callus begins forming around our most tender humanity as we’re humbled into a raw accounting of what’s real, of who we are destined to become.
With our delusions of control obliterated, we find ourselves exiled into a seeming abyss – but one that births true vision. From these fecund depths of seeming desolation, the shoots of wisdom begin emerging. Stark sacred insights rising from the ashes of what was incinerated. We start discerning what matters most, what stories and attachments to finally lay down. Our outer casing is glacially worn until all that remains is the rice paper thin yet durable essence, shaped by fire. And with this realization comes an indescribable freedom – the emancipation of no longer needing to cloak our realness, or grip so tightly to who we’ve outgrown. We become empowered to rebirth ourselves continually as the grand unfolding summons us to. Authenticity becomes our soul’s compass through all storms. The soul shakes itself from its slumber in these blustering essays of heartache. It begins listening to the whispers of its innate resiliency, remembering that we are so much vaster than our temporary personae. From searing advent our truth finally gets revealed, imperfect yet more achingly gorgeous than anything prior. We become as gemstones, fortified by the scorching heat and million-year churn. What tried to burn us away only ends up burnishing our beauty into existence. Like seeds, our greatest becoming was catalyzed while weathering underground. And once cracked, what emerges is something holy, whole and uniquely storied.