On Pain by Kahlil Gibran

Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.

Just as the skin of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain

And if you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain will be just as wondrous as your joy; And if you accept the seasons of your heart, just as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields, you will watch with serenity through the winters of your grief.

Much of your pain is self-chosen. It is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self. Therefore trust the physician, and drink his remedy in silence and tranquility: For his hand, though heavy and hard, is guided by the tender hand of the Unseen, And the cup he brings, though it burns your lips, has been fashioned of the clay which the Potter has moistened with His own sacred tears.