Tell us of Pain

I've been going through my books (I suspect I own about 1000...yikes...my gramp said I'm "book poor"...translation "you spend too much money on books") and am dusting off some of the old self-help books I read in college. I was happy to find the book "The Emotion Handbook" by Valerie Kack-Brice. She was the mentor of a counselor-in-training (she charged less) I was seeing in college. I remember a rather complicated aspect of my counseling came up and my student counselor had to consult with Valerie. I really liked Valerie's open response and her sensitivity to the spiritual aspects of personal experience and healing. So, since I'm currently puzzled about some places God has been taking me emotionally, and how to stay open to feelings in a healthy way, I'm re-reading her book.

While reading tonight I came across this quote from "The Prophet" by Kahlil Gibran. I usually cry though most of that book when I read it. I could really identify with this quote.

"And a woman spoke, Tell us of Pain.
And he said:
Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.
Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that it's heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.
And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joys;
And you would accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields.
And you would watch with serenity through the winters of your grief.

Much of your pain is self-chosen.
It is the bitter portion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.
Therefore, trust the physician, and drink his remedy in silence and tranquility;
For his hand, though heavy and hard, is guided by the tender hand of the Unseen,
And the cup he brings, though it burns your lips, has been fashioned of the clay
which the Potter has moistened with his own sacred tears.