Hospitals are where we go to end the pain. So are clinics. In fact, everywhere is a place to end the suffering. A park, cafe, gym, or even in your own bedroom.
But I'm not here to tell you how to end it. I'm here to tell you to embrace it. Whatever pain you're going through, physical or mental, they all draw from the core of life: the fear of silence. Or more commonly known: death.
You see, humans feel pain because we have to. It tells us that something is wrong with us, with our body, with our mind. Ignorance and sweeping this under the carpet is a dreadful mistake, in this case, giving the pain a free pass to stay a little longer.
We ought to tell ourselves that "I feel pain, therefore I'm alive", rather than "I feel pain, therefore I'm one step closer to death". A person has not truly lived with a silver spoon in his mouth, or has never trampled on the verge of despair, for fear of being careless to fall off the cliff.
Let's all place a skull on our desks. A memento mori, to have the courage to travel alone, be brave enough to hike in the darkness without a hand to hold.
After all, the end is coming, and we all know it.
We just don't know when.
[ alone, silence, pain ]