The messenger... [3.25.17]

What if pain is a messenger?
What if instead of running from it, or seeking to ignore it,
Or to somehow outsmart it, or to numb or drug it away,
We invited it in to sit beside us at the hearth and rest?
Asked it to stay a while and tell us stories.

What if pain is a messenger?
What if we were able stay still with it and listen?
Really, truly, fully listen for once in a long while.
Listen to the lessons that it brought to share.
What if we could linger with calm acceptance,
In the hollows and valleys and furrows,
That it carves into our days?
Sitting with that particular texture.
The raw quality of presence it demands of us.

What if pain is a messenger?
Can you sit quietly with it and listen?
Curl up at its feet like a child at story time.
And find the wonder in its words softly falling?
What could you learn about yourself if you did?
If you were able to rest here in the stillness,
And the silence and the discomfort of now.
Humbled by the your own fragile humanity.

What is pain is a messenger?
Its near silent voice nestled close to your heart.  Both subtle and fleeting. 
Like the glistening gossamer dust falling from a butterfly's wings in motion.
Like the sound the ocean makes as it stirs seaweed in time with its waves.
Like leaves falling before winter and buds waking with the first sun of spring.
What unspoken wisdom does it carry gently for you?

Will you hear its whisper?