Going through the pain

© Christelle Olivia Zitu

I bet everyone knows the painful feeling you have when you have a splinter on your hand and you try to pull that it out. When I was a child I used to run to my mum for that. The funny thing is, she would ask me to stay calm so she could pull the splinter out. However, I always ended up running away in tears until my mum would grab my hand and look me in my eyes and explain to me that If I don't stay calm I will feel the pain. Eventually she would pull the splinter out, while my little voice was screaming. Guess what? After that it felt so great and, I would end up feeling no pain anymore. 

Why am I telling you this little story? Because this is how we sometimes handle things. We may have problems, but when it comes to handling our problems we often run away. We are constantly looking for the easy way out that will only give us temporary solutions. Do we really want temporary solutions? I’m sceptical about that. 

Instead of running away we should seek for things that provide us and our family the peace we need for the rest of our lives. Am I right or not? 

One day I heard a story of a woman. She met a young lady who was going through a divorce. And this young lady felt so bad and told the other woman that she let her little son down. She said that she only had one job, that was to protect her son and she couldn’t do It. Well the woman listening to this young lady asked her, name three things you want your son to be? She answered. I want my son to be kind, wise and resilient. The woman answered. Well for that he has to go through the pain. Your divorce may be the way he is going to be defined by those three things. You need to give him the space to have pain so he can grow and learn from that. 

Is It possible that protecting yourself or somebody else from pain is one of those wrong characteristics the society has given us? Pain is not something to be avoided. The reason why most of us cannot handle certain things or just quit. 
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I've never looked at pain that way. I understand now that running from pain is only a temporary solution. It may give you peace for one day, two days, a month or a year. But the trash will still come back.  

For instance, I remember a very specific time of my life when I had to walk with two crutches. Really not easy at all. It would be a lie if I would tell you that It was simple and not hard to see everybody walking normally. I felt humiliated, me that little girl who loves walking with high heels was not even able to walk on flip flops. The funniest thing of all, I thought It was going to take me 6 weeks to recover but instead of that It took me more than a year and half to completely recover. I remember when going to my physical therapist. She would look at me and laugh because I didn’t want to leave those crutches otherwise It would hurt. Her laughing wasn’t because she was mean, but because she knew that the only way for me to heal was to walk through a painful process. One day I really had enough of that situation. The only vision I had was me walking normally. So, I threw both of my crutches and started walking through the pain. That was painful but it was the only way for me to walk like nothing ever happened before. I had to go back to the therapist for my last session. She was astonished when she saw me entering the room without those crutches. I remember her saying that now I was ready to conquer the world because I’ve learned to overcome the most difficult part of my life. Four years later, I can tell you that I will thank this woman for ever. Because If I’m faced with a difficult situation, I learn to go through It without ignoring It. I know It’s going to mold my character so I can become the best version of myself. 

Not only this painful situation has shown me humility but It made me even stronger than ever before. 
Allow yourself in silent seasons of your life to be calm and listen to God's instructions. I know It doesn’t always make sense but be still. Personally, this is something I had to go through by myself to understand what It really means to be still, patient and full of faith. 

Kiss from a woman with no Limits XoXo
Christelle Zitu