Pain.

Today in a women's circle I am a part of we sat with pain.

Raw, exposed, vulnerable pain.

We did for this dear woman what the world can't do for so many of us: see our pain and be with it rather than run from it or solve it.

Pain is part of the human condition.

Pain is all around us yet we somehow feel we have to go at it alone because we take our cues from the outside world.

Hurry through your grief, put on a happy face, keep things light.

But the pain is where the richness lies.

When we stop numbing through distraction and we really dive in we see something new.

We let ourselves go deeper and deeper until a tiny ray of light appears and we realize it isn't in vain.

We have come out changed.

Perhaps worse for wear but better. Honest. Real.

We have faced our pain and it gave us what we needed to know.