Stay Close To The Pain

By Frank Sontag

We live in a day and age when denial and apathy are hors d' oeuvres on the plate of life while the ignorant masses feast on a main course of neglect and complacency. We live at a time when the brink of insanity is perceived as reality, Orwellian doublespeak is alive and well, and fear is the standard rule of thumb. So how do we maintain our sense of self and sense of purpose in a world gone mad?

As a friend of mine once told me in a surreal but prophetic way; He said Frank,” stay close to the pain." I didn't fully comprehend what he meant until just the past few months of my life. Pain is perceived in our society as something bad or something that should be denied. The spiritual truth is, when felt to it's fullest, pain can be one of the most transcending experiences we can have in this life. To deny pain is to deny life itself; yet people go to immeasurable lengths in ways of self-destruction to stave off this phenomena we know as pain. When we do experience pain, we instinctively try to figure out the source of that pain. We are convinced that if we determine the cause of discomfort, we can somehow prevent it from happening again; but nothing could be further from the truth. Pain is a natural and mandatory part of life and ultimately, growth itself. Said another way, the greater degree of hurt you experience, the greater capacity to love.

We, as a human species, limit ourselves and our identities to what society dictates is normal and acceptable. Those molds now must be broken in order for a new time to come forth. The old way is destined to die. It has come and gone and sown its seeds of madness. It is time for a new way, that new way starts with you and me. The new discovery and the new way lies in each and every one of us. It takes great courage to confront the old familiar bonds of limit and purge forth to the coming birth of the new love that new love consists of filling in the voids of the unknown. But we are not alone, we have never been alone, the flame has always been there. So it is time to nurture that flame and ask it to come into our hearts and minds so that the new vision and understanding can now become the new reality.