Life is full of things that will drive you down. Things that will hold you under until you feel as though you cannot breathe.
Life is also full of things that lift you high. Things that will take you to beyond joys you have known in the past and exceed them to the extreme.
Both are necessary.
If all we have is joy in our life it ceases to have meaning. How would you know you are happy if you do not know sorrow? Happiness becomes mundane if it is constant. Like the best tasting dish at the table, to eat is to savor, but if it is all that is consumed it loses its unique flavor. It becomes ordinary and as it does so we become unsatisfied with it. Being unsatisfied with the happiness we have will lead us to strive for more, perhaps to strive for the unattainable. A dangerous game to be sure. We must realize the pleasures we already have as our own.
The pains and sorrows we feel keep us in check with our happiness. It shows us how things may be worse, how things can go wrong for us. If we are lucky these pains are slight and do not pin us down for long. As bad as these times can be we need them. We need to know the darkest hours so we may embrace the light.
"Success is counted sweetest by those who ne'er succeed." Emily Dickinson
Well said Joshy, well said.
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