This couldn't be happening, but it was. It seemed the gods had become angry and were dealing out punishment to hero and villain alike.

First came the fire. It spread through our land, destroying not only crops, but entire villages.

Second, the earth shook with great tremors, toppling statues and temples.

Next came the floods as geysers blew, rivers overflowed their banks, and the seas roared.

At the end came the wind, powerful and unyielding as it blew away what little had been left to us.

When it was all over, I stood in shock as I surveyed what had once been a great and beautiful city. How could life continue under these circumstances?

We consulted our priests and our soothsayers, asking them to tell us the will of the gods, why this had happened, and where we were to go from here.

But the gods were silent. The priests gave offerings, the soothsayers sat in meditation, but still there was no answer.

Finally, one of the priests received a vision. My heart sank as he relayed it to the people.

"The girl Arista must travel to Mount Olympus. She must climb to the Home of the Gods and surrender herself to their will. Only then will we be able to appease the gods and continue with our lives. As she journeys, she must remember these words, 'The pain you feel today will be the strength you feel tomorrow.' If she does not, she will surely fail."

Why did my heart sink at these words? I was Arista.

When I left to begin my journey, I had no family left to encourage me. No one helped me start down the path to Mount Olympus. I was entirely alone. My only solace was the words I was to remember. I wondered how they would help besides just bringing me comfort. I reviewed them every morning when I awoke and every evening before I went to sleep. As the days melted into weeks and my courage waned, I began to review them throughout the day. At times, they were truly all that pushed me on.

I finally reached Mount Olympus. It was so much taller than I had imagined. It was so large that the peak was hidden among the clouds. But by this point, I knew I could climb it. Everything my people and I had been through, every step I had taken on the long and dusty road, had led to this moment. I did not know if I would ever return to my people, but I knew that I could save them. I had the strength now to do so. Every pain I had endured before and during my journey had given me the strength I needed to climb to the Home of the Gods. I knew then the meaning of the words spoken by the priest. The pain I had felt before had strengthened me so that now I stood tall, ready to face whatever lay before me.

So I climbed. I went higher and higher, pushing myself to keep climbing. It took me four days, but at the sunset of the fourth day I arrived.

The Home of the Gods was like a gigantic temple. But I was completely unprepared for the welcome I received. I was expecting angry gods with vengeance in their hearts. What I found was a collection of beings who welcomed me with open arms, congratulating me on the completion of my journey. I was given a couch on which to rest, water to quench my thirst, ambrosia to assuage my hunger. Nothing, it seemed, would be denied me.

I finally got the courage to ask the gods why they had unleashed their wrath upon the earth.

"The people of Earth have sinned," the gods told me. "They do not love each other. They think only of themselves. When someone is hurting or in need, they speak of pity and of giving, but their hearts are hard and their purses closed. We decided to give them a cataclysm of astounding proportion so that they would have to lean on each other once again. This is the will of the gods: that they love each other as much as themselves. That they find the compassion they have locked away. That they rekindle the fire of love that has so long been cold. If they do these things, they will prosper."

When I returned to my people and gave them the message, they wept. They had brought the wrath of the gods upon themselves with their heartless and uncharitable ways. They took the will of the gods to heart and began, slowly but surely, to reopen their hearts and to love one another. They turned their pain of suffering into the strength and will to change.