Your Choice

Here’s the thing with pain

It is like a spider,

Weaving its net around you,

So tight that you lose your breath,

Can’t move

It’s like a scorpion,

Pushing its poisonous sting into you,

Racing heartbeat, shock

It’s like a boa,

Absorbing you with its massive jaws,

Eating you alive

 

But then it’s not,

Because you’re in charge

It’s up to you to end it at any point

 

You can decide to see it not as pain,

But as a challenge

An opportunity for growth

 

Marcus Aurelius once said:

“Choose not to be harmed -

and you won’t feel harmed

Don’t feel harmed -

And you haven’t been ”

 

So why would you ever decide to feel harmed?

Instead of choosing strength?

 

It’s the habit of suffering,

That we are so used to

The momentum of pity,

That drags us along

And jumping off that high-speed train

Of misery

Seems daring

Almost impossible

 

We know

That the jump will set us free

Yet we decide to be

Captured by the spider

Stung by the scorpion

Swallowed by the boa

 

Again and again

We cry

We sob

We moan

 

Instead of choosing liberty

Which is a present reality

At any point

Open to us to embrace