A life without pain offers no opportunity for self-examination or spiritual fulfillment. Everything that is perceived to be worthwhile and good would become meaningless without suffering and resolution. Accept your pain, but don’t passively accept the pain of others. And remember: Pain is never cool when one person inflicts it on another.
Pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.
Quotation from Kahlil Gibran
The pain passes, but the beauty remains.
Quotation from Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Phemie Alcott’s MySpace Page I love her music!
Personally, I’m not too complacent as to accepting my own pain either.
Highs and lows, highs and lows…
What a cool message ! Love this idea ! Beautifully presented !
There is an infinite hollow space at my center where the heart used to be.
Gibran was brilliant with his insights. When we answer a call of the heart, we also risk experiencing tremendous pain. Few seem able to risk. However to be available to love is the ultimate.
i have this theory that we could totally do without pain and evil, mostly because i’m a Christian and the story of the garden of eden
but still, even tho it’s impossible to go back to that, i have a goal of eliminating suffering from my life, hehe…
A real good subject about philosophy it would take too long to develop!
Your drawings are excellent!
Great wisdom in this lovely post…the illustrations and image are lovely too Seraphine:)
So beautiful and tender… Very poetic, I love it.
Would we appreciate anything without the need to suffer for it? How do we know we are not in pain if we never experienced it first?
Lovely pictures and nice message.
No gain without pain I guess, but I’d try and keep it to the minimum, especially cracked vocals and bum notes
Beautiful images and thoughts!
Wow! Excellent shot.this is (TAMESHK) in iran.
My best friend’s wife (since divorced) used to grab a hairbrush and lip synch to the song “Break It To Me Gently.” Arrrgh. I can understand why they are no longer married!
Looking back, I’m glad we never double dated at a Karaoke Bar.
I like your blog!
Sincerely.
Francine.
All I can say is REFRESHING.
Kahlil Gibran book “the Prophet” with that appealing mixture of poetic philosophy has never been out of print. I like his quote “Half of what I say is meaningless; but I say it so that the other half may reach you” From Sand & Foam. I trust you’re well or coping well should pain be it present. -A thoughful post – best wishes
Pain offers an opportunity for growth. Cool message, lovely shot of the berries.
She has a great voice, painfully soft…
Ah pain, my old friend.
Has there ever been a life with no pain? Has anyone ever had to seek or be open to pain to find it? I think it’s built in with birth, which come to think of it, was also painful! Guess the issue is what we do with our pain. No pain, pleny of gain.
But I digress…I love your work Seraphine… and would love to see into your brain as each of these gems arise.
Hmmm … sounds like you subscribe to Helen Keller’s sentiments:
“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.”
Personally, I prefer not to suffer pain. I think it can be avoided if we constantly examine ourselves. By the time pain arrives, it means we missed something. I was pretty lucky, I had a reasonably happy life until my mid-30s. Then I realized I was getting older and my dreams didn’t seem to be getting any closer. Working on that. Might be easier to change course if I was only 13, though.
Pain makes us feel alive… this is why I tweeze my eyebrows.
Pain is awful and I can’t speak from own experience, because I didn’t suffer much pain in my life if I compare myself with others. On the other hand people who cannot feel pain are in big danger because their bodies don’t warn them. Pain stops when its cause is removed, but many times the cause cannot be removed and the pain goes on, and on, and on. It’s a big torture and praising pain for its higher goals is doubtful in my eyes, if you didn’t or don’t suffer yourself.