Sadness teaches me acceptance

There are some people, probably due to the nature of their job or its their nature, to always appear optimistic about life. They will claim that there is a reason for everything, a purpose for things to happen when they happened. I too, like to make the claim myself, many times. Every time, if I can help it. Life is after all, what you make of it.  How you respond to situation in your life. You make your decision. To be happy. To be sad. There is a populist belief that you can create your own happiness. That it is a choice.

Most times, of course its easier said than done.

Try to be happy when you want something, desperately and you can't have it. And there will be people out there who try to persuade you to believe that things do not make you happy. They will say associating happiness to ownership of things, or a particular experience is putting happiness in objects and circumstances. External. They will argue that happiness is from within - how you see your life, how you create value for yourself. Their notion is that happiness is an internal thing.

Yeah. Easy to say, right?

Happiness may decidedly be the point where you have arrived. When you realize that to live is not to be happy, all the time. Happiness is good but happiness is subjective. Sadness on the other hand, is real living. To be sad means to really know how to live.

I don't mind being sad, sometimes.
Sadness teaches me kindness.
Sadness teaches me compassion.
Sadness teaches me tolerance.
Sadness teaches me balance.
But most importantly,
Sadness teaches me acceptance.

Long Panai 2010