Lately, all that seems to fill our world is evil--evil of those who discriminate, evil of those who hate, evil of those who kill (literally and figuratively), and evil of those who make this world seem a little less beautiful day in and day out. Unfortunately, this evil lives with us (and sometimes in us) every day. It lives in that person who made a certain hand jester after cutting you off in 5 o'clock traffic, it lives inside your boss at work who takes all of his personal problems out on you, and it even lives in the minds of generations to come as they continue to grow up in a world that seems to hate its own creations.
Every day, as evil thrives, suffering takes its hand and thrives along with it. Although the sufferings of the world are inevitable and never-ending, it's always important to try to find the good in the bad, in hopes that we can eliminate at least a small portion of this world's evil. By finding the good in our suffering, we make room for hope and for love in our hearts so that we may be able to learn how to grieve, how to thrive, and most of all--how to suffer in a way that's healthy for ourselves and for those around us.
Suffering is not at all easy. Most of the time, in this fast-paced world that we live in, we are able to find every little excuse or reason not to face our internal and external wars. Often times we think that by facing our sufferings, we often have to a face certain guilt, certain regrets, certain pain, certain weaknesses, and certain hate for others and sometimes ourselves. Who wants to spend time reflecting on such things when we can just turn on some music, play a game, or get on social media to distract us and focus on someone else's external sufferings instead of our own? "Numb the pain," we seem to tell ourselves. Whether it be through technology, alcohol, drugs, shopping, eating, working out, we all fight off our pain and troubles differently than the next--and while some methods of coping may seem healthy, something that distracts you or gives you a certain high rather than feeling the pain you should be feeling is not at all healthy.
What many don't understand, especially today, is that it's okay to suffer. It's okay to feel. It's okay to grieve. It's okay to talk about it. It's okay to ask questions. It's okay to cry. In a world so evil at times, we seem to hear it telling us, "Stay strong", "Time heals all", and my personal favorite, "It's life." While all of these can be true to some extent, when are we going to stop enabling the numbing of pain and shoving everyone's suffering and problems under the rug and start initiating conversations with, "How are you feeling today?" and actually meaning it?
Suffering does not discriminate. Suffering does not judge. Suffering does not pick and choose who it wants to make miserable on a certain day of the week. Everyone will experience some sort of suffering. Whether it be the death of a loved one, a break-up, the loss of a pet, a family member being deployed overseas (no one's suffering is better than someone else's!), we all feel the pains and the aches of our hearts breaking inside, so why can't we acknowledge it and support one another?
Every day, another evil act is done--another person is killed, another soldier dies, another police officer shot in the line of duty, another criminal gets away with murder. Despite this, just as another evil deed is done, another life is brought into this world, another flower blooms, another couple find happiness in matrimony, and another person smiles at a complete stranger. We are the ones who choose what impact we'd like to make on the world. We are the ones who decide how we will impact the lives of others that surround us every day. Sometimes, we are even the ones who cause our own suffering and the suffering of others. And sometimes, we stand in the line of fire of the evil doers and we suffer. No matter who you are, no matter how you suffer, remember that it's okay to feel the pain in which you feel and that it's okay to reach out to others so that they may help you understand that suffering and hopefully you end up finding the good in your pain and your troubles.
