Sunday, June 14, 2009

Paincheck to Paincheck

A life lived from paincheck to paincheck is hardly a life lived. Paycheck to paycheck is, perhaps, more palatable - not to mention fundamentally different in nature. Pain alerts us of bodily misgivings and . Paychecks are simply a means to an end. Paychecks provide with the means to acquire our basic needs and elastic wants. Painchecks are the points in our personal timelines that cause, nay force, us to take look inside ourselves, usually causing us to cringe at what we find - physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and often irreversible pain. Scream if you'd like. Sometimes we must. More often we do nothing. No. Something is not nothing. We actually do something, all of us. How we respond to pain speaks volumes of our character - no two people react the same. That something, our response, may be subtle - a stoic, complacent, placid look - but that facade does little in the way of addressing the pain. Living paincheck to paincheck is no way to live at all. Truth; pain comes. Truth; pain goes. 

We must choose one of two paths; live from paincheck to paincheck, always in the state of hyper-awareness, thinking only of an imminent, but not yet realized pain, or we can live from... wait, let's simplify this. The ol' peaks and valleys metaphor seems well suited for this analogy. Let painchecks be the valleys and pain-free/freedom living be the peaks. Back to our choice of paths. We must choose between living peak to peak or valley to valley. Hope lies in the former and despair clings to the latter. Hope sees us through our point of pain recognition, healing and recovery - hope ultimately will lead us up the path to Xanadu, atop mountains that so grandly afford us incomprehensible vistas. No more talk of the other option. It is no longer an option. Hope for the future breeds peace in the present. Choose hope, live peacefully from peak to peak. Smell the alpine flowers en route to bliss, but tarry little - lest the developing weather in the valley consume you. Move expeditiously and summit fearlessly. God bless your journey from peak to peak. 

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