You Gotta Face This Pain

This thing that's got you locked up so tight,
this pain that keeps you from breathing full-
you gotta face it, you gotta step back away from it,
turn and face it.
You must first take a moment to accept it's existence,
understand that it forever is an indelible mark upon your soul.
But only for a moment because then...
you have to stand your ground and tell this pain,
this ugly tortured mark upon your soul that you are taking control now.
You say these things softly but with resoluteness and conviction.
You tell this pain that you are no longer defined by it,
that instead, you will re-define yourself with the lessons it has taught you.
You will take this ugly mark and you will from it draw beauty,
you will see thru new eyes and look upon the world with compassion, love and empathy;
with the eyes once of a tortured boy but now of a man who has been there and knows the depth of pain, loss, disappointment.
As you say these things to the pain that has burrowed for so long in your heart,
something else will begin it's emerging from deeper still within you.
This mark upon your soul will shed its calloused skin and a light will blaze
through the darkness where once you chose to hide...you see...it's all choice.
You will breathe full for the first time in what seemed to be always,
you will finally...choose...to breathe full.