Personal
This Is Life
Life isn't only the sunny days. It's the heartbreak too, and learning to love all of it.
Written in 2016, a few months after my father died.
Life isn't just when the sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and everything is going smoothly. It's not just the extravagant vacations, the honeymoons, the promotions, and the parties.
Life is also the heartache and the heartbreak. It's the tragedies, the hardships, and the bad news. It's the illness and the suffering. It's the poverty, the chaos, the storms.
It's everything that rips our hearts open and makes the tears fall. It's the pain that reminds us we are human and that life is precious.
Life is the contrast between good and evil, abundance and scarcity, sadness and happiness. Without that contrast, we would never have the chance to explore the depth of our being, to be grateful for what and who we have, to find out what we're made of, and to grow.
Dealing with my dad's death is teaching me this. It's teaching me that I need to learn to love all of it. Every one of us is going through, or will go through, something that brings us to our knees and makes us question everything. But this is life. All of it.
I love my dad. He meant the world to me. He did everything with me and for me. I know I'll be reminded of him every day, and I know I'll cry. But my tears only come because I had something worth missing, and for that I am grateful.
So when the wave of sadness comes, I'll let it come. I'll let myself feel it, and I'll remind myself that this, too, is life.
Danielle Posa