Looking for the Easy Paths

Human beings have always been conditioned to look for easy and painless paths through difficulties. We don't want to face the sometimes painful path of compassion, empathy, and openness to the needs of other people. We naturally turn aside from discomfort and seek to reassure ourselves that we can ignore the needs of an interdependent world, a world deeply in need of healing and compassion.
~ from The Sage's Tao Te Ching by William Martin ~

Pain. It's the one thing most people shy away from. When it strikes, we will do almost anything to push it away. We will self-medicate and/or engage in all types of destructive behaviors to try to blot it out.

But a pain-free life would be one not worth living! It is through pain that wisdom can take root. It is through falling down that we learn to pull ourselves up.

While I'm certainly NOT suggesting that we should go in search of pain, we should not shy away from it either. It serves a useful purpose and, through it, we can find the ever elusive purpose and meaning of life.

Most importantly, we should never forget that pain makes joy possible.