Pain

It is another anniversary, another day of mourning. Many long years since and still there are those special days that bring relentless memories of a tragedy, of one who passed, memories that can’t be erased by time. You would think the pain is forgotten, imagine it has faded with the passage of years , but it is just waiting beneath the surface , to rear its ugly head .  

Time the great healer is helpless, though it removes the edge , it is powerless to blot out the sting of sorrow. It can bury the past, but not the pain, which like a shadow follows our path. Sometimes at a distance, sometimes close, sometimes just one with us, a part of us to never let go, and there is no escaping the misery that follows .

Oh pain, from whence do you arise, to haunt us day and night ? Are you a punishment for our sins, for the carelessness of our youth ? Sometimes physical, caused by illness ravaging the body, destroying the very cells ,sometimes mental, the agony of the mind, from bereavement or loss, from disappointment or rejection, from a broken heart or loneliness. 

Is there no defence against your savage attack, is there no shield against your viscous assaults ? Is there no cover beneath which we can hide, or find sanctuary from your ruthless tentacles ? Is there no balm, no comfort, is there no healing, no end to the suffering, once we are trapped in your clutches? How then can we insulate ourselves from your pitiless perseverance ? 

Day and night you haunt us, with brief interludes of respite, when to us is shown what life could be, without your influence. Wallowing in self pity, blaming the stars and our fate, consumed by an intense sense of being enslaved, we live with no hope of release from your miserable prison ? Are we to suffer in silence, are we to befriend you, are we to walk with you, all the days of our life ? 

Oh, but not anymore, for I have found the Way ! I have learnt to rise above the pain, above time that is keeping me imprisoned. I have learnt to fix my eyes on the Most High, and my sorrow is halved, for He shares it with me . I strive to walk the path He has ordained, and know for sure, His Way does not include bondage, but freedom from all that condemns ! Now I can say with conviction, pain is losing its grip on me .