The Beauty of Suffering

Suffering has a beauty.
Struggle has a beauty.
Poverty has a beauty.

Suffering holds up a mirror
to who we really are underneath,
beneath the layers of false identities
stitched onto us by society.

Struggle draws out the mettle
from soft, uncertain flesh,
testing what we’re made of
when no one is watching.

Poverty shows us
the bare bones of life.
Need and joy are free,
quiet gifts poured out by nature.

Suffering brings us pain,
grief, and loss,
but mostly it reminds us
that we are alive,
raw and sentient.

Struggle pushes us
to scour the vast sea of life
for pearls of meaning,
carefully chosen,
strung one by one
into the necklace of our life.

Poverty shows you what matters:
the things you can live without,
the things you cannot;
the bargains you make to survive,
the words you will eat,
the pride you will swallow.

It shows you that time is the same,
no matter the price tag
on the timepiece that measures it.

Suffering, struggle, and poverty
tear away the glitter,
expose the capitalist costume
draped over our lives.

They whisper, in the end,
that all that truly remains,
all that ever mattered,
is the beauty of the soul
and pure love.