Darkness is your candle

What hurts you blesses you. Darkness is your candle.
-Rumi

I was compelled to find something from Rumi that emphasizes the point that challenging external circumstances , though they can bring pain, can also bring a certain learning and therefore reason to be grateful. Pain, be it physical or mental, can bring light.

I think so called difficulty  brings light in terms of bringing 'clarity' to a situation, allowing us to truly see.

Emotions, I realize, are not personal...they are human.  Humanity shares these emotional experiences though we do not recognize that when we  are lost  in our 'little me' identities.  Pain  becomes 'my pain' rather than 'pain', my problem rather than a problematic perception shared by all; my hardship rather than simply  the challenge of being human.

.It doesn't have to be this way. When we face pain or 'difficulty' instead of curling up and away from the world...we can instead hold our suffering out in front of us like a candle, can we not? We can  allow it to light the way for others and for ourselves.

Just saying.

All is well in my world!