Wider Than What Hurts

From the Dark Goddess Tarot, the Hag of Air (King of Swords); from the Tattwa Cards, Water/Seed of Fire:

Dhumavati ("the smoky one") is a widowed Hindu goddess associated with all things considered inauspicious. Though she personifies the dark side of life, Dhumavati is included as one of the ten wisdom goddesses. When life is full of sorrow, frustration and pain, she tells us to embrace life rather than curse it, to maintain a wide perspective. As Mark Nepo reminds us, "When we narrow our focus, the problem seems everything." Water/Seed of Fire is a combination of opposites, thus its key phrase 'creative tension.' Is it possible for two things to be true, that life is full of joy as well as suffering? Nepo's advice is helpful: "In actuality, misery is a moment of suffering allowed to become everything. So, when feeling miserable, we must look wider than what hurts. When feeling a splinter, we must, while trying to remove it, remember there is a body that is not splinter, and a spirit that is not splinter, and a world that is not splinter."