Quote: “Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding… (cont.)

Last week our beloved cat Trixie passed away. Today as i sat here lost in quiet rememberings, i began thinking in general about the feelings of grief and heartache. I not too long after recalled this quote and its wisdom related to the ‘seasons of the heart’.

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“Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding. Just as the stone of the fruit must break, so that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain. And if you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy. If you accept the seasons of your heart, as you have always accepted the four seasons, you would watch with serenity the winters of 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. “

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- From one of my very top favorite reads,  “The Prophet” by Kahlil Gibran