Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses
your understanding.
Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its
heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.
And could you keep your heart in wonder at the
In life, we must grow, be it physically, spiritually, emotionally, intellectually. But sometimes, this growth is painful. 
 For example, in physical growth, we endure growing pains as our bones stretch and harden into their adult forms. Likewise, in intellectual and spiritual growth, we must discard old understandings and beliefs as we come to more fully comprehend new ones. This can be painful, but it’s necessary in order to grow. 
 Gibran likens the pain to the breaking of a shell; as our  understanding  grows, it breaks the shell. Note that when a hatchling  grows , that’s when it has to break the shell it’s in, or die. 
 
 This line, by the way, is much better than the cliché “Pain is weakness leaving the body.” Feel free to quote it in your next workout class.
On Pain