Without the dragon, the spear rusts

Can a person live without trials? At times I feel that these “battles with the serpent” are an existential necessity for human beings. The serpents take many forms, colors, and scales. Without such a challenge, no transformation occurs; triumph is never gifted—it is earned through confrontation with fear, pain, and shadow. "This painting does not merely depict the struggle—it demands it. And it is in that very demand that the key to the inner alchemy of change lies."