Growing up...
"...growing up is all about getting hurt. And then getting over it. You hurt, you recover, you move on. Odds are pretty good you're just going to get hurt again. But each time, you learn something.
Each time, you come out of it a little stronger, adn at some point you realize that there are more flavors of pain than coffee. There's the little empty pain of leaving something behind--graduating, taking the next step forward, walking out of something familiar and safe into the unknown. There's the big, whirling pain of life upending all of your plans and expectations. There's the sharp little pains of failure, and the more obscure aches of successes that didn't give you what you thought they would. There are the vicious, stabbing pains of hopes being town up. The sweet little pains of finding others, giving them your love, and taking joy in their life as they grow and learn. There's the steady pain of empathy that you shrug off so you can stand beside a wounded friend and help them bear their burdens.
And if you're very, very lucky, there are a very few blazing hot little pains you feel when you realize that you are standing in a moment of utter perfection, an instant of triumph, or happiness, or mirth which at the same time cannot possibly last--and yet will remain with you for life.
Everyone is down on pain, because they forget something important about it: Pain is for the living. Only the dead don't feel it.
Pain is a part of life. Sometimes, it's a big part, and sometimes it isn't, but either way, it's a part of the big puzzle, the deep music, the great game. Pain does two things: It teaches you, tells you that you're alive. Then it passes away and leaves you changed. It leaves you wiser, sometimes. Sometimes it leaves you stronger. Either way, pain leaves its mark, and everything important that will ever happen to you in life is going to involve it in one degree or another."
~* Author Jim Butcher, from his book White Night *~
I'm going to hazard a guess and say that most people aren't looking ahead to 2010 and thinking about all the pain that a year brings. That would be rather pessimistic. Most people look ahead to the New Year and hope for better things then the last year brought. Even if the last year wasn't bad, we always have expectations of our futures being better. But as I was reading this passage in this book, White Night, I really thought that it was fitting for this time of year. Because, while a quote that's all about pain may seem somewhat pessimistic and make me seem like I've turned all emo, its really not that way. Really, its a more optimistic way of looking at the pain we experience throughout our lives and realizing that its there for a reason, and its not always a bad thing. This is a really great reminder for me, especially since my year hasn't been all that super and I can identify with a lot of those painful feelings Mr. Butcher describes so well in the passage above.
(As a side note, this passage is one of the reason's why I'm such a huge Jim Butcher fan. He's a great author, with a lot of insight and pretty practical life application's, considering the fact that he writes science fiction.)
Each time, you come out of it a little stronger, adn at some point you realize that there are more flavors of pain than coffee. There's the little empty pain of leaving something behind--graduating, taking the next step forward, walking out of something familiar and safe into the unknown. There's the big, whirling pain of life upending all of your plans and expectations. There's the sharp little pains of failure, and the more obscure aches of successes that didn't give you what you thought they would. There are the vicious, stabbing pains of hopes being town up. The sweet little pains of finding others, giving them your love, and taking joy in their life as they grow and learn. There's the steady pain of empathy that you shrug off so you can stand beside a wounded friend and help them bear their burdens.
And if you're very, very lucky, there are a very few blazing hot little pains you feel when you realize that you are standing in a moment of utter perfection, an instant of triumph, or happiness, or mirth which at the same time cannot possibly last--and yet will remain with you for life.
Everyone is down on pain, because they forget something important about it: Pain is for the living. Only the dead don't feel it.
Pain is a part of life. Sometimes, it's a big part, and sometimes it isn't, but either way, it's a part of the big puzzle, the deep music, the great game. Pain does two things: It teaches you, tells you that you're alive. Then it passes away and leaves you changed. It leaves you wiser, sometimes. Sometimes it leaves you stronger. Either way, pain leaves its mark, and everything important that will ever happen to you in life is going to involve it in one degree or another."
~* Author Jim Butcher, from his book White Night *~
I'm going to hazard a guess and say that most people aren't looking ahead to 2010 and thinking about all the pain that a year brings. That would be rather pessimistic. Most people look ahead to the New Year and hope for better things then the last year brought. Even if the last year wasn't bad, we always have expectations of our futures being better. But as I was reading this passage in this book, White Night, I really thought that it was fitting for this time of year. Because, while a quote that's all about pain may seem somewhat pessimistic and make me seem like I've turned all emo, its really not that way. Really, its a more optimistic way of looking at the pain we experience throughout our lives and realizing that its there for a reason, and its not always a bad thing. This is a really great reminder for me, especially since my year hasn't been all that super and I can identify with a lot of those painful feelings Mr. Butcher describes so well in the passage above.
(As a side note, this passage is one of the reason's why I'm such a huge Jim Butcher fan. He's a great author, with a lot of insight and pretty practical life application's, considering the fact that he writes science fiction.)
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