The breaking of the shell

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 moistenered with His own sacred tears.


(Kahlil Gibran)