The moments of deepest pain that break your heart open.

It is the pressure of the mountains that shape the coal into diamonds..

Yet time and patience are required, for the fires of life will mold you and shape you but never before they burn you and melt you into nothingness.

The hand of the creator will make of you a polished gem, yet it must first chisel and break away everything that is excess weight.

Everything that is no longer necessary must go..

And this process is painful, for you are unaware of the masterpiece that life is making out of you.

You cannot see it in the moment.

All you feel are the picks and scratches of a constant hammering, the sometimes not so subtle and forceful removal of layer upon layer..

And the fear and agony of ending up naked, ending up with nothing, being nothing, losing yourself, not knowing who you are or what you want along the process…

Realizing that everything you once chased and had was but a mere illusion.

Games that kept you worried and busy so you wouldn’t have to pay attention to the emptiness of it all.

And now pain brings you back into the moment, into what is real, what hurts, what was and no longer is, endings, transitions, shifts and the inevitable concern and question about what will be…

And you find that the fire that you thought was out to burn you was actually a guiding light and warm embrace guiding you through and out of the darkness you find yourself in.

You realize that fear soon turns into fuel.

Confusion and chaos start becoming clarity and order.

And the aching desire for something different.

For a different life, a different experience, a different outcome..

And above all, BEING a different person.

And you start to sip in and receive the blessings of a situation you once cursed.

And you notice the perfection of it all.

With time, you look back and realize that it HAD to happen – and that although you wouldn’t wish the same on anybody, you also wouldn’t change it..

For who you’ve become is far more precious and worth a thousand times more than the price you paid to get there.

And the pain that in that moment felt like life’s punishments was nothing other than Grace being poured on you.

And in that moment, you smile.

For you know you’ve healed. You notice that resentment shifts into gratitude, wounds into wisdom and fear into love.