Pain defines moments in the lives of all human beings. The trial is not the endurance of pain but the choices we make regarding how to endure.

The louder you bellyache, the longer your stomach will hurt.

A lot more hurt eats at your heart when it’s personal.

Acknowledge that some moments are just plain awful―desperate and gloomy and painful and miserable and nothing at all but anguish. No truthful, cheerful thought in the world will fix it. So let me cry awhile. Don't try to find a sunbeam where a shroud of darkness encloses me. Let me mourn. Then, after the storm, when the tears have run dry and my eyes choose to open, I will look for your rainbow of hope.

You pierce me with a look, a word, a gesture. And yet those same weapons could shield me from hurt if you so choose.

Don't lick your wounds unless you care to taste the sting a second time.