How many people reading this are in pain, physically or emotionally?
Please do not add to that pain with painful thoughts or shame about past actions or inactions.
As a friend posted on Facebook recently, pain is not a punishment.
If pain is not a punishment, then what is it? Let’s see what wise people have said about pain.
Fear is pain arising from anticipation of evil. — Aristotle
It is easier to find men who will volunteer to die, than to find those who are willing to endure pain with patience. — Julius Caesar
There is no coming to consciousness without pain. — Carl Jung
Pain is never permanent. — Saint Teresa of Avila
Illness is the doctor to whom we pay the most heed; to kindness, to knowledge, we make promises only; pain we obey. — Marcel Proust
The great art of life is sensation, to feel that we exist, even in pain. — Lord Byron
I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain. — James Baldwin
Pain reaches the heart with electrical speed, but truth moves to the heart as slowly as a glacier. — Barbara Kingsolver
All of us have ways in which we mask and cover our pain. — Iyania Vanzant
Find a place inside where there’s joy, and the joy will burn out the pain. — Joseph Campbell
Pain and pleasure, like light and darkness, succeed each other. — Laurence Sterne
Pain is the most private experience, but its causes, whether natural or man-made, demand public accounting. — Nancy Gibbs
To truly laugh, you must be able to take your pain, and play with it! — Charlie Chaplin
If my art has nothing to do with people’s pain and sorrow, what is “art” for? — Ai Weiwei
One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain. — Bob Marley
Champagne for my real friends and real pain for my sham friends. — Tom Waits
It pains me to leave out some of the great quotes about pain.
This Tom Waits/Cookie Monster mashup helps relieve my pain:
If that doesn’t relieve your pain, here‘s some Bob Marley:
I always take pains to thank those who help me write these posts and — of course! — YOU.
The Year(s) of Living Non-Judgmentally 