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 rem-
edy in silence and tranquility: For his hand, through heavy and
hard, is guided by the tender hand of the Unseen,
And the cup he brings, though it burn your lips, has been fash-
ioned of the clay which the Potter has moistened with His own
sacred tears.

From "The Prophet"
by Kahil Gibran