I once had a friend who experienced a very difficult time. In the time span of just one month, she had lost both husband and father to a devastating illness.

In the months to follow, she withdrew from the world. The pain of accepting sympathy from others was just too much to bear.

“I don’t want to be reminded,” she once said. “I want the pain to go away. How can I ever let it go, if I’m presented with the memory each day?”

Bit by bit, she retreated further into herself. At first, the holidays went uncelebrated. Following, she stopped accepting calls. Until one day, when she ultimately refused to leave her house.

Oh, how I begged for her one day at the door. “I can’t,” she cried, through a slit in the door. “It’s just…too big.”

Oh, my goodness – haven’t we all, at some time, felt this way? That the circumstances surrounding our ‘just being human’ were far too big to live in peace?

And, haven’t we all made a hasty life’s retreat? Compelled to hide from the pain of this world, and forgetting…

It’s the pain in the heart that most needs our mending.

But, that’s human nature – now, isn’t it? Pulling away at that first wince of pain – hoping to avoid any further ‘fallout.’

“We think that the point is to pass the test or overcome the problem,” writes Pema Chödrön, “but the truth is that things don’t really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It’s just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.”

In an attempt to unburden our pain, we actually takes steps to fortify it. We reinforce old patterns, and hang our hats on it never going away. It’s our ‘monster in the closet’, so to speak – and just as we did when we were so very small – it’s easier to hide beneath the covers, then take a look with the lights yet so dim.

But, inevitably, through our looking in – we find our peace. The eternal bliss, our one sure shot at absolute happiness.
It’s within these moments we realize, that the true sweetness in life lies within our release.