A Talking Stick: Suffering is the trickster

I was bent over, pale and in severe pain. I could hardly sit up. My appendix was the culprit.

Pain in no stranger to me. Pain once was a constant companion.

Today I am no longer defined by my individual pain.

When two people love another they have the capacity to cause so much pleasure and so much pain. We get close to each other and we allow ourselves to be vulnerable. Bending back our necks to the sharpened teeth of pain, we risk death, dismemberment, and sacrifice. We also risk grace.

Pain and suffering are kissing cousins. They are not really related, but have been spotted together so often that urban lore implores they are related. Pain is a real phenomenon while suffering is purely optional.

Suffering is the ego's hologram.
Suffering is the trickster
Suffering is an obvious poor choice, dressed in expensive tight jeans.

While I lay recovering in my bed reading books, doing crossword puzzles and thinking, I gave thanks to my pain for all it has gifted to me.

Today I can experience pain and move on..

Are you able to spot the trickster in your life?