The wound is the place where the light enters you. – Rumi

Pain is an inevitable friend that shapes us in ways that we only realize afterwards.

But, what is pain? An emotion, a sense, a state of being?

Pain acts as a reminder of our humanity for many people. It serves as an indicator that we are living beings with the capacity for emotion and knowledge. It's a tree reminds us to respect boundaries when we fall from it and get hurt, a bruise that shows us the power of the reward balance in our first bike ride. Small moments, teachings that make an impression on our skin and minds that we remember for a long time.

As we grow up, pain evolves. Broken friendships, lost opportunities, or unsaid words become more intangible wounds than skinned knees and bruised elbows. These wounds teach us lessons that cannot be expressed in any other way.

It’s force of transformation. “Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding” as Kahlil Gibran once put it. A conflict with a friend may be difficult, but it provides you about relationships and trust. In the same way, failure works as a stepping stone for growth and resilience.

Pain becomes a guide in many ways. It shows us with essential knowledge and keeps us rooted in reality. The bike that threw you off and the trees you fell from are both a reminder of reality.

Within us, pain plants the seeds of growth, that eventually grow into the branches that support us and provide us with fresh, more resilient perspectives as we continue.

So maybe we may learn to embrace the inevitable companion with curiosity, not fear, but with a smile when it comes. After all, our stories are shaped by both the lessons learned through pain and our joys.