A sword isn’t any good as a dull lump of metal. It’s the process of sword-making that makes a good sword – and that process is hardcore.

You take a piece of metal and put it into the fire.

You take it out of the fire and hit it with a huge, heavy hammer – multiple times.

You dunk it in water.

And repeat the process until that dull lump becomes a strong, shiny, sharp sword.

It’s not easy to become a sword. Spending all that time being scalded, dunked, and beaten makes you want to wall off, to disappear, even to break – anything to make it stop. But if you survive, when you make it through, you become something beautiful, useful, balanced.

As a lump of metal, you’re not doing much. But as you become a sword, you manifest.

Hardship makes us who we are. It shapes us. The difficult times give us strength, help us make and deepen connections. It brings us together, gives us something to bond over. It gives an individual the means to become part of a community. Broken hearts mend, and the scars – eventually – enrich our beings.

Without being laid on the forge, we will never become what we are most capable of being.