You feel your suffering is meaningless

I will not insult your pain by telling you it happened for a reason — but I can help you find meaning even in suffering that has none. You need not find a reason for the suffering to find meaning in how you meet it — there is a difference between the cause of suffering, which may truly be senseless, and the meaning you make in your response, which is yours to create, so stop demanding the pain have a purpose and turn to the courage and compassion and love with which you bear it, for the suffering may be senseless but your response need not be. Suffering can deepen you, though it is not a gift you would choose — pain breaks us open, and in the breaking a greater capacity for compassion and depth can grow, not because the suffering was good but because even senseless pain can be turned toward a deepening rather than only a damage. And your suffering can connect you to others rather than isolate you — it joins you to the vast company of all who have suffered, so let it open you to meet others in their pain with an understanding only yours has taught you, and in that bond the meaningless pain finds a kind of meaning after all. What are you suffering?