Good Day,

Have you ever heard the story about the life of an oyster?

Near the beach of a South Pacific atoll, on the floor of a secluded lagoon there is a coral reef. One of the worlds largest bed of oysters exist there. Many of theses oysters have lived there for their whole lifetime – which can be more than thirty years – just doing what oysters do.

You might think that the life of an oyster would be one of peace, tranquility, and exquisite, unsurpassed beauty. But like many things in this life it can be quite the opposite. For some of these oysters life is one of turmoil, pain and growth.

An oyster can become contaminated, invaded and irritated by something foreign. it irritates the flesh – causing terrible pain. the irritant is typically a grain of sand, a single piece of ordinary sand. It’s what we would call“a thorn in the flesh”. To temporarily soothe the pain the oyster secretes a mucous-like nacre – a substance to encapsulate the irritant.

Then, a few months later, the pain returns. Again the oyster sends another coating of nacre to the place where the grain of sand is lodged in the flesh. This process continues for the life of the oyster, resulting in hundreds of layers of the nacre coating.

And yet when we peer inside expecting some terrible wound or horrible disfigurement what we find is the most beautiful, iridescent and most perfectly formed sphere. We know them as pearls. Through all of the oysters years of trouble and struggle to overcome the pain – something beautiful is created in the process.

We all have pain in life, physical, mental and emotional. This does not mean something is wrong with us or we need to escape to someplace where the pain has no effect. It is our nature to retreat or withdraw when something feels wrong, but in our modern lives we often mis-use that instinct – we can never escape our own fears.

We can face them. We can even come to understand and appreciate the lessons we are handed during times of pain. We only need to pay subtle attention to our pains regardless of their nature and we often will discover something meaningful about them we grow to understand their origins, and we are offered a chance to face what we may typically try to avoid.

Ultimately . . . we Grow.

Have a peaceful morning and consider this -  Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If we quit, however, it lasts much longer.

Peace and Love, Jim