What Goes Up…

A recent encounter with a chipper young lady who has had a less than ideal upbringing has left me thinking about the ups and downs that life brings.  For decades now, I have held the belief that to experience true joy in life we must first experience real pain. 

I spent much of my childhood in the barren flat expanse of central Texas.  Once a year my parents packed up the Dodge and drove us up the Pacific Northwest.  Dad always made sure the route include lots of time in the mountains of Colorado, Wyoming, and Idaho as we made our way up to the family farm in Tieton, Washington.  I can’t begin to explain the awe and respect I had for the beauty of the Rockies in Colorado, the Cascades in Washington, and the ranges in between.  Even as a child, I remembered wondering if the people that were raised in these environs had a similar appreciation or if they took the glory surrounding them for granted.

I think this appreciation of nature’s offerings is akin to true joy in life.  To truly appreciate it you need to know what it is like to not have it.  This isn’t to say you don’t find beauty in the mountains or joy in life if you haven’t experienced otherwise.   Rather, that the level of awe or joy you are able to experience is commensurate with the pain or lack of beauty that you have experienced.

A life where we have never been tested, where we have not had to struggle, leaves us with nothing to judge the best of times against.  The best times, in such a life, are simply a bit better than the other times.  For those that have spent time stuck in a dark abyss, the value of freedom and light are extraordinary. 

I also believe that we can only have periods of great joy and contentment for limited periods.  Otherwise, we will become complacent, and as the memories of challenges faced and conquered fade, so must our ability to feel exhilaration and inspiration.  Like a refreshing rain cleanses the air, we must periodically be challenged, tested and pulled away from the periods of calm and be reminded of the pain or emptiness that life can bring so that once again we can see life for the gift that it is.

In my mind, we should look upon the challenges life hands us with a knowing nod that it is what needs to happen and the best is yet to come.