Pain is an inescapable fact of life

Whether it be emotional, physical, or psychological

Pain can build you up or tear you down

Better or worse it’s always in the peripheral always there

The fear of it governs us

Controls us

Our thoughts and our actions seek to avoid it

But through it we learn some of our greatest lessons

Achieve our highest victories

See our bitterest defeats

Pain teaches us

It can define us if we let it

But it was never meant to

Pain wasn’t even in the blueprints

A consequence of our own nature

Of the free will which we are gifted and cursed with

Without pain you might never learn to not touch the fire

Or jump from great heights

It can inspire you to change

Inspire you to live

Despair you to bitterness and defeat

To shun everything and everyone

To run and hide

But only if you let it

It can challenge

It is a part of healing a part of change

However bittersweet it may be

Pain is one of our greatest detractors

Yet one of our greatest motivators

Pain is what you make of it just like so much else

What will your pain be

Will it inspire or despair

Destroy or change

Motivate or detract

Only you can decide

Some of my greatest pain

Taught me how to help others

Because I can reach out to them and say

I’ve been where you are let me show you a way out

I’ve been here before I can get us both out

Let me show you

Let me walk with you

We’ll defeat it together

That’s what pain is to me

It motivates me to be better

It motivates me to save others

It helps me be who I want to be

Who I need to be

It reminds me of past mistakes

And how to correct them

What is your pain to you?