Transforming Pain and Suffering

(Why would anyone write a poem about pain and suffering?

Because she was told to

By whom?)

We are human

We sometimes have pain

We want to escape or alleviate our pains

We sometimes suffer endlessly before finding ways

To decrease or erase our pains

What’s the difference between pain and suffering?

Pain can be acute, quick or long lasting
Suffering is a chronic and real human condition

And dilemma

One that lasts for awhile, can last forever

Can include pain and has no exact recipe

For a quick fix 

Except for

Breathing the air we can breathe

Slowly, deeply, gently

Focusing on these breaths we take

May help distract us from pain or suffering

Or rather, instead, help us dive deeper into the same

Swimming around there and witnessing what

Suffering is all about

Not to analyze and figure it out 

With graphs and data points

But, to learn about it, allow it

Accept it and maybe some day, embrace it

Only then does this pain or suffering feel heard and understood

Like a part of us that has been hiding in the shadows for so long

Like it has never before been discovered 

Like an island in the ocean

That no human being has ever seen or touched though

It has been there all along

Not really hiding but waiting 

To see 

If anyone would like to venture out

Explore enough of the world

To find this particular little speck or

Gargantuan piece of solid rock or soft earth

(Or whatever type of substance)

That has been there all this time

With no witness

Once we see the island

That seems to stand alone

We wonder about it

We might touch it, hear its sounds

Smell it and view its voices

See its parameters and

Geological landscapes

Wondering what lives on it and through it

Or we might back away from it, fearful or

Holding it dear and respecting its presence

Without intruding onto its surface

Not wanting to nudge or break it apart

Stun or startle it

All sorts of great reasons to back off

Maybe never to come back and maybe to

Return only having built up the courage

To veritably seek the truths of

This murkiness, this part hidden so deeply 

Without knowing why

Maybe because of neglect?
Maybe because of abandonment and anxiety?

Maybe just never having traveled this path before

So much to see, so much to do, so much to experience

This spot of space may have messages for us to taste and

Then, we swallow and store them somewhere deep inside us

This pivotal piece of land now

Once witnessed

Begins to change

This island’s boundaries may swivel a bit

Its colors may vary in tone or texture

Brightness or darkness

The tides around it continue to come and go 

Perhaps at a different pace than before

This place’s spirits and its living beings may wander closer

For a hug or at least to sniff out what or who we are

Be careful to be gentle

Be careful to be kind

Those beings and this land may be just as 

Frightened as we are

Never having directly met each other before

No need to wrap our arms all around them

Or to shout that we have found them

Or to attack them in our confusion or rage

Be respectful and breathe, calmly and quietly

Share our inhales and exhales with this place

While we two gaze together upon each other

Curious and still somewhat scared but

So glad to know of each other’s eternal existence

Did the pain and suffering wander away?

Oh, not feeling it as much while

Taking this inward journey?

Or, did we feel it more precisely, more fervently?

Pain and suffering may slip away or intensify

When we travel to this new-seeming space and time

Hopefully and pleasantly surprised by transforming into

New life, new form, new hope

For now

More to explore later on