She didn't believe for a second that life was always going to be easy, but what she had realised, was that, through any pain, there were two opportunities: she could stay bitter and resentful for as long as she needed, and fight the accepting of what is, or, she could grieve her loss, feel her pain, and ask how she could grow from this, and find meaning in the pain for herself. Because isn't this what makes the pain so much worse? The senselessness of it? Or the internal conflict that comes from wanting something to be different from that which it is? If we were able to sit with the pain, know it without wishing it was something else, and knowing that it would make sense in the future, and that some growth and meaning would come from it, wouldn't that make the pain more manageable? . . . . . . . . . . Photo credit: @loveluella photography