I've been asked this a few times and have pondered my answer. In short, there's no short.

Summon every life-affirming, poetic, electric way to say excruciating and inhale it to your core - giving birth was that for me. It burned the most beautiful burn. An experience too full to call pain.

I think I could describe it this way...

Imagine basking in light from the most beautiful of all life's suns. Face to the sky. Rays of fire kiss your cheeks into a smile. The warmth oozes you open and you gently wish you could stay there forever, it feels so good.

The gentle wish is heard. Forever you said.

Feet plant themselves deep into the earth to ground you in the commitment made. There's no turning back. Breath creates branches, thoughts become leaves that photosynthesize the experience. You give yourself to it all. Tumble to a place where time is upside-down and backwards. Fold your body inside out and find a baby there.

As you breathe your way through the experience, the sunshine intensifies.

With every inhale it becomes hotter.

The rays of light begin to burn.

Your body erupts as you roar your way through the fire. It is the purest of all initiations. A terrifying concoction of agonizing and blissful.

Painful? Honestly, pain was part of it, but it was so much more than pain. It was everything that life is, boiled into essence, at the same time.