Recognizing the Need for Both Good and Bad

By Amy Dee

​My mom’s house sold recently. This was GREAT NEWS. Within moments, I heard my daughter was on her way to the ER because of a minor accident.

“Can’t I enjoy five minutes of peace before the next storm hits?” I whined.

This summer has been a succession of mini storms. Mom’s serious fall derailed a short vacation. A leisurely transition into our new home became frantic when we needed to move Mom the same week. Delayed flights forced me to sleep overnight in the Atlanta airport. On and on.

This morning, I realized that my experiences are life’s natural flow of ups and downs.

Both good and bad things happen in everyone’s life. Too often we think happiness relies on the quantity of these trials and successes. Lots of good stuff makes us happy, while lots of bad stuff makes us unhappy. This isn’t true.

The sum of happiness doesn’t come from the number of ups and downs. Happiness results in how smoothly we transition through both the painful and the painless moments.

Nothing in our life is permanent. Like the weather, everything changes: our moods, emotions, relationships, goals, etc all change.

When clouds show up, we don’t curse the sky, believing that the storm will last forever. When the sun shines, we know the clouds are minutes or days away. Good or bad experiences don’t define our lives; they are just small pieces in the big picture of our overall life.

Once we recognize the impermanence of our lives, we no longer need to hold on to either the “good” or “bad” moments. We value every moment when we conclude it happened for a reason, and when recognize it won’t last forever.

So next time you feel bad, remember, like clouds in the sky these moments will pass.

And next time you feel good, appreciate the moment of sunshine, because, ultimately the clouds will drift in.

Remember the saying attributed to Vivian Green:

Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass…
It’s about learning how to dance in the rain.

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