On suffering
Suffering contains many gifts, the least of which is placement in spacetime. As the consequences of overcoming suffering are exponential till the end of time, you know your place in history by the grace you can extend for the rest of existence.
Suffering contains seeds of healing and grace; these seeds grow into permanent trees with their roots in your lived experience and fruitful branches in the future experiences of others. Humble yourself and your branches will bend lower, becoming accessible to orphans and nameless children.
Your charity extends as far as you wish, and further even than that, as far as you can dream, if you are alive and your dreams are true dreams. Whereas, the loveless are living nightmares whose lives are as false as their fantasies. Let the living live and the unloving be executed for their crimes against their humanity and ours.
Nesting upon one of the upper branches of the tree of suffering is love, and let me explain. The Palestinian child throws stones at the tank that killed his father. The Uyghur mother recites Qur’an silently to her children before they report to the reeducation camp. Refugees in diaspora light the way, even and especially for those who will never make it. The Black intellectual protests on behalf of her ancestors who witnessed unspeakable endless horror with no hope but in love and the mournful spirit that taught the blues and jazz and hip hop centuries later.
Love is born of suffering like children are born of labor pains. Thus suffering is always a gift of love. Never think that suffering is a curse. The only curse is to be deprived of love: to inflict suffering upon others.