The author of this verse is not entirely known. Some say it is the wisdom of Persian Sufi poets who understood a deep truth that still reverberates among us thousands of years later. “This too shall pass,” is a phrase I repeat to myself often when I am in pain and…I am in pain often. I suffer from chronic reproductive and digestive trouble—worse than typical. There are moments, every month where I am clutching my abdomen, crying on the floor. This pain is more than physical, it is emotional—it causes me to sink into a dark place where I can no longer see light. Drugs only mask it. Surgery has been a temporary solution. This agony began when I was a young girl and worsens as I age. The pain does pass, yet somehow, like all women, I am intrinsically linked to the cycles of the moon, thus the pain returns every month. Sometimes it is tolerable, other times I long for death. That is how I know the truth of this phrase—yes whatever we endure will pass, then it will return, it will transform, and pass again—like the pendulum of a ticking clock, the cycle continues until we are no longer.
Written by Andrea Bijou