Friendship with Pain“It’s never about what happened to you, but what you become through it.” - Emmanuel
You see them when you travel through Belize City; in fact they are in every city. Standing, sitting, lying sometimes barely alive it seems. These are the street people, the homeless. “Spare some change?” He calls out, holding out a hand crusted with grime. He’s got a blank stare in his eyes just behind his pain, his skin is weathered hanging inside old clothes that has seen too many pavements. His smell makes you coil backwards as though being pushed back by an invisible field.
Pain or pleasure-who knows what, put him roaming on the streets. He is part of the human landscape. No one likes to look at pain. No need for details-we want to move on-get to the fun part. Out of fear it might be you, you toss the coin into his palm, you can move on now.
Some people live with pain all their lives. Others chose to end life hoping for a better place. Living with pain is not easy. Some days are better than others they say. But as they come to accept it, pain becomes a friend that comes and goes teaching when to stand strong and when to let go. Life is filled with opposites but as we step back blurring our vision we transcend the detail and see the whole beauty of the complete picture. Pain is the complement of a joyous life. As we stay strong in the face of suffering, joy eventually becomes the background of all there is. Through time it prepares us for a door we may pass through. After all we can’t take the human landscape where we are going.
Books by Christopher Emmanuel can be purchased at his Art Gallery in The Sunbreeze Hotel, Art of Touch, Pages Book Store, Black orchid Spa and Sol Spa.
Pain or pleasure-who knows what, put him roaming on the streets. He is part of the human landscape. No one likes to look at pain. No need for details-we want to move on-get to the fun part. Out of fear it might be you, you toss the coin into his palm, you can move on now.
Some people live with pain all their lives. Others chose to end life hoping for a better place. Living with pain is not easy. Some days are better than others they say. But as they come to accept it, pain becomes a friend that comes and goes teaching when to stand strong and when to let go. Life is filled with opposites but as we step back blurring our vision we transcend the detail and see the whole beauty of the complete picture. Pain is the complement of a joyous life. As we stay strong in the face of suffering, joy eventually becomes the background of all there is. Through time it prepares us for a door we may pass through. After all we can’t take the human landscape where we are going.
Books by Christopher Emmanuel can be purchased at his Art Gallery in The Sunbreeze Hotel, Art of Touch, Pages Book Store, Black orchid Spa and Sol Spa.
