Pain can tear you apart. That’s probably why we hate it—we hate that there is one four letter word that can wreck us in all that we are.

We hate that for a certain point in time we aren’t in control. Things happen, things break us from the inside out.

And all we can do is let them happen.

I know I’ve never been able to make sense of why we have to feel this pain. What in my life did I do to deserve to hurt so much that the breath in my lungs can’t even escape?

On my most recent binge of Grey’s Anatomy, I heard this monumental quote from the lovely Isobel Stevens that answered the burning question: “When it hurts so much you can’t breath, that’s how you survive.”

And it made sense.

All this pain, all these trials, all this struggle—it made sense.

Because at least I am living. At least I am trying to breath. At least I am moving forward in some way. 

Yeah it all hurts. I’d prefer that my chest didn’t ache so much that I couldn’t catch my breath some days.

But I’m living.

I am living.

I am making it another step farther.

When we feel pain it means that we’re feeling life in the rawest form. We are experiencing it in a special way, a way that pushes us forward.

Without pain, we wouldn’t demand change in our lives, would we? We’d be content to stay in the same places, doing the same things we always do.

We’d be subject to fall away from this world because we’d begin to live only for ourselves and forget what’s around us.

The pain in our lives keeps us grounded. It reminds us that we’re human, that we’re meant to be broken, that not everything can always be perfect.

We become stronger from it, and that is how we survive.

As much as it monumentally sucks to hurt, we need it. Without pain we can’t grow, and without pain we won’t be able to take on the trials life has for us in the future.

Pain reminds us that we’re alive and that there is a future. 

It shows us that we can go where we never thought possible. It’s the only defense mechanism we need to get through this crazy thing called life.

Next time you’re hurting, remember that.

Remember that you are alive, and you are lucky. Remember that you are surviving.

You are only hurting so that one day you won’t hurt any more. That is how you survive. 

That is how you live on.

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