Don’t let your pain become your story,
A fleeting storm, not life’s inventory.
What hurts today can fade tomorrow,
No need to shape your life in sorrow.
Struggles are steps, not where you stay,
They are not you in any way.
When you name yourself by wounds endured,
You give the fleeting a home secured.
A moment of hurt, a fleeting sting,
Shouldn’t define your everything.
For every thought, belief, and tale,
Can build the walls or lift the veil.
If pain’s the lens through which you peer,
It’s all you’ll see, year after year.
But you’re much more than trials past,
More than shadows that life casts.
You feel, you carry, you learn, you grow,
Through winds that wail, through waves that flow.
These aren’t your truth, not all you are—
You’re a flame that shines, a guiding star.
Let feelings move like ocean waves,
Don’t let them anchor you in any way.
They’re parts of your path, not where you land,
Life flows with your journey, not standing in the sand.
You are not what breaks, but what remains,
The strength in you will rise after the pain.
You are the one who endures, who thrives—
Not what hurts you, but what survives.
Thach Ho, LCSW 