Choice

A proper soreness,
a pain
earned. 
What is the difference
from pain
inflicted external?
What is that thing
that allows pain
to be a comfort
when by some trial
or effort?
And why cannot
that comfort
be found otherwise?

My hand
viscerally aches,
nerves from thumb to mid forearm
as I type this.
Yet
grinning I recall the rain
yesterday
swelling the river.
Cold, earned suffering.
But chosen.
Chosen suffering.
The good kind.

It is regularly strange
to be human.