Broken

A man once asked that if you had the choice between a moment of happiness, knowing that sadness would follow, or the absence of happiness, knowing that there would be no sadness, which would you choose?  I know people who would choose the absence of sadness.  There are those who just cannot bear the thought of sadness at all.  I think it is why some of them like to sleep so much.  People can be happy, or scared, numb, or even angry in dreams.  You have to be awake to be sad.

There are those who would bravely choose the happiness, knowing that it is a risk.  It takes a certain amount of courage.  It is a risk of hurt and pain.  It is a risk of failure, and a risk of loss.  But it is also the risk of hope, for what is happiness really, but a belief in a future.  A belief that our heart will heal after it is broken in sadness.  A belief that happiness will follow.  And for every potential sadness, the potential happiness becomes greater.  This is what makes us human.  Earning that future by believing in happiness, despite the very personal knowledge of the sadness that is there.

It is not easy.  My friends in Sri Lanka, the people with whom I have lived with, laughed with, and cried with, have known more sadness than most of us can only imagine.  The depths of the sadness that they have experienced only makes the peaks of their happiness greater.  They are creating their future by making the hard choice.  The choice of a broken heart, and the hope that it will heal.