Suffering is a part of human evolution and my personal evolution. When I suffer loss or a feeling of lack, I stretch out my consciousness to include more. I learn about what is missing and I learn how to fill up. I become bigger than I was in order to hold both my pain and my hope. I take charge of my soul growth because I come to understand that if I don’t know one else will, no one else can. When I can lean into my own suffering rather than numb it or medicate it so that I don’t have to feel it, my suffering becomes my teacher. It whispers to my inner being.

I will listen to what my suffering is trying to tell me

“Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.