We can rest contentedly in our sins and in our stupidities, and anyone who has watched gluttons shoveling down the most exquisite foods as if they did not know what they were eating will admit that we can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.
- C.S. Lewis

Nobody’s life is entirely free of pain and sorrow. Isn’t it a question of learning to live with them rather than trying to avoid them? The greater part of human pain is unnecessary. It is self-created as long as the unobserved mind runs your life.The pain that you create now is always some form of non-acceptance, some form of unconscious resistance to what is. On the level of thought, the resistance is some form of judgment. On the emotional level, it is some form of negativity. The intensity of the pain depends on the degree of resistance to the present moment, and this in turn depends on how strongly you are identified with your mind. - Eckhart Tolle

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Yesterday is the first time that I have admitted to having pain since my accident. I have equated pain with not being strong, doing something wrong, or not doing enough, instead of a God given warning signal from my body that needs to be attended to. Acknowledgement of pain says nothing about my character, however, denying pain speaks volumes...

"We take care of the future by taking care of the present now." - Jon Kabat-Zinn