attentive to this hurting

What if we could be less averse to an experience that hurts? What if we could be with it completely? As is. As we are. Allowing the moment to find us.

We share a misunderstanding that the best way to live is to avoid pain, get comfort. All of us are the same, but, says Pema Chödrön, “A much more interesting, kind, adventurous, and joyful approach to life is to begin to develop our curiosity, not caring whether the object of our inquisitiveness is bitter or sweet.”

When you allow yourself to fully be with the experience of the hurt, what opens? This perhaps: A sensing. Without story. In the body. It isn’t quite rigid. There are spaces, even subtly. A pulsing, vibrating. Expansions, contractions. Perhaps you sense this: Other areas of your body-mind are feeling well, wishing well, amid different scintillations? Spaciousness meeting spaciousness. A silence from which all rises. And falls back. Knowing.

Can you feel that your very aliveness lends affection to your experience, restoring your wholeness? You had wanted to throw it out. Do you see that in love for yourself you can love all? Falling through, falling into acceptance. This.
No need to fear. Yes, it hurts. And it’s already here. Shall we be with it? No circumstance not open to our attentive kindness.