“That which causes us trials shall yield us triumph: and that which makes our hearts ache shall fill us with gladness. The only true happiness is to learn, to advance, and to improve: which could not happen unless we had commerce with error, ignorance, and imperfection. We must pass through the darkness, to reach the light.”

When we hear the word “ache,” unpleasantness quickly comes to mind. Tooth aches, back aches, stomach aches, ear aches, heart aches; thinking about them is enough to make your head ache. Physically, people of all sorts ache. Muscles, ligaments and tendons alike burn and bruise and hurt through our varied efforts. Mentally we fuss and stress, and while perhaps it isn’t as direct as a physical burn, it’s very much the same. There are many things that can make us ache from a spiritual standpoint; dangers to our spirit are so numerous they may as well be trees. These aches assault every aspect of our being, and it really is quite unpleasant. “Ache” means something different to me though. To me, our ache is our pride, knowledge, and strength as they pertain to every essence of our being: our spirits, minds, and bodies. Our aches are symbolic of our efforts and successes; they’re a direct showing of how hard we try and how much we care. Our aches make us who we are.

To ache isn't to suffer; rather it's what fuels us to be strong. Spiritually, we as humans do ache, and while it hurts, it's not necessarily a bad thing. The ache in our hearts isn't a sign of weakness; our pain doesn't speak of our character. What does speak to us is how and if we fight through this pain, this ache: our will to fight is our strength. Mentally, we ache and hurt because the human mind is always seeking new ways to better itself. A hurting mind isn't a sign of ignorance or stupidity; rather, it's a sign of growth, improvement, strength. Probably the most indicative symbol of strength in ache though, is the body. The body literally tears itself to pieces for the sake of improvement. Football players run plays and drills until their veins pump lava and their gear becomes a vice, track athletes run and lift until walking becomes wobbling, and something as simple as getting up the stairs for bed becomes a near impossibility. You don’t find them complaining, though. To them, that soreness is a smile on their face, because they know that as soon as they recover, they’ll be a little bit stronger, a little bit faster, and a little bit tougher. Farmers, construction workers, loggers, these people may not be athletes, but they punish their bodies every day to accomplish what they need, and in most cases, they’re simply trying to put food on the table for their family. So in their ache, there’s no regret, because they know that for every second of pain or discomfort of any sort, that’s just another second that goes towards their family having the contented life they work for them to have. The list goes on and on of these people that give it all up physically, and so does the training, the work, the motivation, and the strength gained through these efforts. The human body doesn't break, it molds. It's not glass, but clay. In one sense or another, our spirits, minds, and in particular our bodies grow strong through our “ache.”



When we fight through our ache, we gain not just strength, but knowledge. In a spiritual sense, the pain we endure is what teaches us a lot about ourselves. There are things in life that affect us spiritually, and while these things can metaphorically drop a mountain on your head, it doesn't mean you can't learn from them. Your body can learn from aches; broken bones come back stronger, muscles learn to react faster than we can comprehend, athletes adapt to challenges and exceed them in a fantastic manner not through sheer brawn, but with a sort of physical intellect. Most significant in terms of knowledge and ache though, is our minds. Our minds have an endless job, and that job is to keep us from going off the deep end, while simultaneously assuring that we're always learning new things to keep us up to date on what's going on in the environment, because more than likely, the environment is trying to throw us off the deep end. It's in this way that our minds tend to get overburdened, and it's in this way that we learn more. A college student finds himself with more assignments than he can count on his fingers and toes, a writer finds that his creative mind is clearly not aware of the approaching deadline, a teacher can often be found with their faces buried in their hands as they listen to their kids run around and destroy everything. The constant ache of our mind is an indicator that we're learning something. This difficulty is like a teacher to us, and just like a teacher, we can choose to be obnoxious and difficult rather than listen, work hard, and take responsibility, but unlike a school teacher, we don't outgrow mental aches and agonies. In terms of learning through mental aches and pains, we'll always be students. In all aspects of our being, we ache and hurt, we're sore and grieving, but especially from a mental standpoint, we're always learning.

Somewhere in the world, there almost certainly lies an indistinct island, and on that indistinct island lies a tiny hut, and in that tiny hut, stands a tremendously proud family. This family wakes up every morning with sore backs, burnt necks, and calloused hands. They wake up mentally fatigued, knowing that to survive, they need to attack those crop fields, double over to pick plants, and there won't be any room for being lackadaisical. Despite these trials and tribulations, that family takes utmost pride in its aching muscles, it embraces the mental challenges, and each and every one of their hearts are on fire as they work diligently to supply to each other what is necessary for their survival and happiness. Their faces may be dirty, and their minds might be cluttered, but their spirits are alight in knowing that these aches and those marks are exemplary of the fact that they work hard, and never give up. This family knows what pride is better than any dictionary; it knows the meaning of the word in a way only people who work hard and dig deep understand. As it is to this family, our ache should be our pride, because if we're hurting in any case of severity, that only means we cared and stood up for something important to us.

You are not weak because you hurt. If your body hurts, you're getting stronger, if your mind hurts, you're getting smarter, and if your spirit hurts, your prides growing. It may not seem to be this way at some moments. You may find you're aching so bad you can't climb those stairs, your minds so cluttered you can't focus on class, or your spirits so damaged you can't imagine going on, but even in the darkest times of your life, some simple principles stand true. If you work hard in success and in downfall, stay tough no matter what, believe in what you're doing, you're sure to find that while nothing good comes easy, good things do happen, and all you’ll ever need to realize is that the ache in your body, your mind, or your heart is not a bad thing, it's the source of your strength, knowledge, and pride. That ache is your opportunity; it’s the symbol of what you can become. Your ache should mean everything to you, because how you interpret it is most certainly going to determine your future, your success, and the fullness of your heart- your ache is your life.