We know that pain is an inevitable fact of life. But the truth is that we can differentiate pain from suffering. Certain events of our lives—a miscarriage, a lost job, a heartbreak, a sleepless night—are indisputably painful. And yet we can learn to bear these challenges with grace when we are offered opportunities to just be with them—not to try to change them, not to push them away, not to fear them, but to simply accept them as a natural part of the ebb and flow of life itself. Just as joy comes and goes, so does despair. This is a lesson that we can practice again and again, until we find that our natural reaction to pain is witnessing it, accepting it, and creating a spacious container to soften its hard edges. This takes practice and determination, but it is indeed entirely possible.