I can finally see 
the beauty in the pain.
Messy, uncomfortable, heartbreaking… 
but maybe necessary.

“If I had to suffer, you should too”, 
the mantra of the unhealed.
The rot and the roots, 
the cruelty and the compassion; 
the paradox of an awakening.

The darkness of suffering.
Hearts breaking
and expanding
at the same time.

Yet the light persists
on showing up 
in the middle of it all.
And it still hurts like hell.