A quote for such days...

"Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better take things as they come along with patience and equanimity."

–Carl Gustav Jung

I desperately want to believe that this is true, that happy people also experience equal amounts of darkness. Not because I want them to be miserable, mind you, but because I desperately need to know that others suffer in life, too--I want to know that I am not alone. I simply cannot bear to think that some people are endlessly happy and do not suffer, because that means there is probably something very different about me. I also want to believe that there is meaning in sadness. I do fervently believe that this is so.

I think a good mantra, which I strive to live by much more lately, is to "take things as they come along with patience and equanimity." After all, we do not get mad that the wind blows our hair, that the waves rock the boat, right? It just is. There is nothing we can do about it.

And so perhaps the lesson is to just step back and watch how the waves of sadness, darkness, frustration, etc., blow by.

And also to do the same with happiness...