What can suffering produce? (Palapa Gamage)

Did you know that pearls are a product of pain? 

   Every pearl is the result of an oyster that has been wounded by a grain of sand that has entered inside it. An oyster that has not been wounded cannot produce pearls. On the inside of the clam is a substance called "nácar" and when a grain of sand accidentally penetrates the inside of the oyster valves, this covers it with thousands and thousands of layers of nácar to protect itself. As a result, a beautiful and shiny pearl is forming. 

   I have come to think of this fact of nature as a metaphor. Pearls, like tears, are a product of pain and suffering. 

--Palapa Gamage 

Image source: https://mettahu.wordpress.com/2014/03/09/the-lesson-of-the-pearl-and-the-oyster/
Quotation source