Pain--The Secret Ingredient In Life's Banquet

American poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Pain is like the black keys on a piano we prefer to avoid.  The greatest poets of all times, including Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, sprinkled the sharps and flats on top of their gourmet meals in order to produce seven course meals fit for a king.  Some argue the recipes were imported from other countries and repackaged.  Pain is the universal ingredient that inspires life's banquet.

The beard that Longfellow sported in his later years masked his facial scars, external signs of his failed effort to rescue his second wife when her dress caught fire.  Longfellow's first wife died shortly after a miscarriage.  Longfellow suffered from Neuralgia, a pain in one or more nerves.  The music he heard in his head was like an unruly child banging on a set of drums.   In spite of all the pain Longfellow endured, he produced some of the sweetest poems the world has ever witnessed.

Let your pain be the fertilizer you use to nurture new ideas and new opportunities for the next season of your life.  Harvest the fruits of your labors when they are ripe and serve them to your guests.  If anyone asks for the secret ingredient, caution them about the high price that must be paid in order to obtain it.