The Breaking of the Shell

As I took a few minutes for contemplation today I was lead to my bookshelf, and to a classic book, "The Prophet", by Kahlil Gibran. I have been so grateful this week for the healing that has happened in my knee. I have had 2 days with little to no pain, and it was fitting, with that in my heart, that the book opened to this:

"Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding. Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its 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 wonderous than your joy;

And you would accept the seasons of your heart, even as you always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields.

And you would watch with serenity through the winters your grief.

Much of your pain is self-chosen.
It is the bitter potion 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 burn your lips, has been fashioned of the clay which the Potter has moistened with His own sacred tears."

And so it is, that I thank my inner physician in silence and tranquility......Alder