We live in an era marked by a fleeing from darkness, a fleeing from the reality of mortality and that which we cannot control. We try to illuminate everything, because perhaps if we cast a light everywhere no darkness will remain, but the darkness is so much greater than anything we can even imagine. And so we race around shining our lights in a desperate hope to avoid the pain, which, ironically, only leads to our lives being run and determined by that very same pain because all of our actions exist in response to it.

Suffering is profoundly social and when we privatize our pain and cover it up we lock ourselves away from compassion and understanding. Which is why the suffering of each of us is so important. We all have the opportunity to experience transformation and it is our own wounding that calls out to us as a path to serve others. It is our own wounds that create the opportunity for us to explore sensitivity, compassion, and love. It is our ability to say “I understand” that creates the opportunity to be present for another human being, for another species even. Not to solve their problems as much as just to see them. Taking time with our own experience of suffering allows us to dive down like a pearl diver into the wound and find a gift that becomes available to others.