The Necessary Thread

 

You can’t be scared of the pain in life 

It’s the pain that makes it beautiful

The Necessary Thread 

We all have this idea

Of what the perfect life

Would look like

To some 

It has a happy marriage

There are children 

Well adjusted

A good career 

A nice modest home

To others 

It is a life of travel

Visiting far and exotic locales

Experiencing different cultures

Living free of commitment 

Footloose and fancy-free

One thing I find common

In conversations 

About the perfect life

Is the missing piece

Pain

I am not an advocate for pain

I don’t seek it 

Nor inflict it 

But even the perfect life 

Does not avoid it 

Physical, mental, emotional

It waits without bias 

For the ready 

And the unready alike 

We will not avoid it 

The best we can do 

Is to manage it 

And learn from it 

I felt the hurt

I felt the guilt

I felt the anger

I felt the fear

I covered the fear

And blundered forward

Appeased the anger

And wounded a friend

Assuaged the guilt

And forfeited the caring

Deadened the pain

And lost the lesson 

Life is not a numb thing 

It is meant to throb, to ache, to burn 

It is forged in feelings 

It is refined by fire 

Life is meant to be lived 

It is planned to be felt 

It is premeditated to be raw 

Pain is not the story 

It is only the passage 

© Ron Simpson Jr. 

January 9, 2026