Pain

Why must I be hurt?

Suffering and despair,

Cowardice and cruelty,

Envy and injustice,

All of these hurt.

Grief and terror,

Loneliness and betrayal

And the agony of loss or death --

All these things hurt.

Why? Why must life hurt?

Why must those who love generously,

Live honorably, feel deeply

All that is good -- and beautiful

Be so hurt,

While selfish creatures

Go unscathed?

That is why --

Because they can feel.

Hurt is the price to pay for feeling.

Pain is not accident,

Nor punishment, nor mockery

By some savage god.

Pain is part of growth.

The more we grow

The more we feel --

The more we feel -- the more we suffer,

For if we are able to feel beauty,

We must also feel the lack of it --

Those who glimpse heaven

Are bound to sight hell.

To have felt deeply is worth

Anything it cost.

To have felt Love and Honor,

Courage and Ecstasy

Is worth -- any price.

And so -- since hurt is the price

Of Larger living, I will not

Hate pain, nor try to escape it.

Instead I will try to meet it

Bravely, bear it proudly:

Not as a cross, or a misfortune, but an

Opportunity, a privilege, a challenge -- to the God that gropes within me.

                                                                                      - Elsie Robinson