I don't know that there is anything more annoying than a splinter. Splinters jam their way into a place just beneath the surface of the skin; not deep enough to be dangerous and just deep enough to create a nagging dull pain that does not go away. Try to remove a splinter and you usually end up getting just the tip or, if you are lucky, 60% of the little booger. Then comes the valiant attempts at do-it-yourself surgery including but not limited to needle punctures, exacto-knife incisions, and non-stop pushing and picking. If you are lucky, you can infect yourself and end up requiring real medical attention. So, what is the best course of action? If at first, the splinter does not come out easily, nature must take its due course. Eventually, the body will work a splinter out.
I was thinking about splinters tonight on my way home from work as a great metaphor for things we don't understand, things that cause us pain in our lives. We live in a world that demands solutions, that asks for things that are not easy to be removed. We do not see the purpose in struggle, in pain, in suffering. We see those things as splinters that must be removed. Consequently, we end up harming ourselves further by trying to eliminate all suffering. Suffering teaches us lessons that may not be apparent as the suffering is going on. Anguish and confusion are emotional splinters that are clearing a way for joy and peace but we have to allow the infinite wisdom of our souls to work through the discomfort. We have to sit with the discomfort, allow it to seep into every inch of our being, wrap ourselves in the blanket of these dark and brooding emotions and simply acknowledge them as part of who we are and then let them go. It is the last thing on the planet that anyone WANTS to do, but it is the emotional work that is required for us to grow, to evolve, to attain a greater understanding of who we are and what our purpose on this earth is.
