"Mom, my legs hurt again!" He said this with some excitement, knowing he would soon be even taller. I sighed, knowing what was going to happen to the grocery bill.

It almost seems unfair, the pain that accompanies growth. But that's the pattern, anywhere you look. Farmers break the ground to plant a seed, and the seed breaks open and breaches the ground to reach toward the sun. Bodies stretch beyond what seems possible to painfully deliver a new life into the world. Even growth that takes us from this world, into an eternity we cannot yet see, is accompanied by pain.

I don't want to get too existential here, but I do think the pattern is a curious one. When we grow personally, within, overcoming our traumas and shortcomings, there's emotional pain that comes with it, a letting go of what once was familiar and comfortable to create new possibilities and purpose. Systems experience growth pains, too, as they adapt to new needs, demands, and purpose. This weighs on my heart as the empty nest phase of life approaches more quickly than I like.

Life continuously asks us to shape, stretch, and reform. The norms we have now won't be the same ones we had twenty years ago, nor will they be what our future selves will face. The challenge is knowing when pain is a signal that we're growing and when it's a signal that we are trespassing. It's so easy to just resist it all in the hope that it will cease. But alas... perhaps that's the greatest pain of all, wondering what could have been.

My wish for you this week, Reader, is that you have the spiritual resources to navigate through the signals. I pray that you have supportive, honest friends that help you through the difficult times and the questions life presents. I pray that you are able to take time to be silent and breathe and let God whisper to your soul and beckon you forward. And I pray that you have the wisdom to avoid the pain leading to trespass, and the courage to pursue the discomfort leading towards growth that you may find the joy, the challenge, and the hope that lie beyond it. That's the fiLLLed life.

Live a fiLLLed life, Melissa