Somehow, we like to believe that the grass is truly greener on the other side, of which, that other side, thus experiences life at its very best, without any problems or concerns. No doubt, some people’s lives are materially better than others, but life is far more than our material gains, for life encompasses the whole gamut of love, betrayal, success, failure, and just about everything that we could possibly imagine that could occur or desire not to occur. Indeed, no family has not experienced some sort of tragedy within their domain, for those that live today, are the same that will die tomorrow. So too, those that are closest to us, are the very same that can be our greatest joy or they can also deeply hurt or disappoint us. So then, life has its inevitable ups and downs, which thus provides us with those obstacles and challenges to overcome or else find ourselves defeated by such.
It is important to realize that all of us have suffered some degree of disappointment in our respective lives, for our desires forever outrun what we actually achieve or have in our possession. This alas is the nature of life for those who are not able to temper their desires and replace such with simply running the best race that they are capable of, come what may. In truth, the more that we desire something or have to have the perfect family or the perfect life, the more that we set ourselves up for inevitable disappointment when things do not go according to the plan that we have so structured. It isn’t so much that we shouldn’t prioritize what we ought to work on, but rather it has a lot more to do with our inability to take into fair consideration all the contingencies known and unknown that are oftentimes either out of our control or we can’t control.
The tragedies that happen within our life, of death, injury, and failure, are ours to deal with, to the best of our ability, of which, it has to be noted, that every family suffers from some personal tragedy, as well. This thus signifies that as much as we might admire or envy someone else, if we were to indeed spend some time in their shoes, we would know that they too, have also suffered their own tragedies. The human heart will invariably be hurt, and because each of us has been hurt, we have the opportunity then to find common ground with just about anyone, in the sure knowledge that they too have grieved for that which has been lost.
So too, the reason why we want to acknowledge that every family has experienced tragedy is to recognize that this type of sorrow is universal, and because this happens to all of us, it thereby provides us with the opening to relate to one another in a way and manner that we can grow and heal one another, by the recognition that our common humanity, finds its highest mission, in our gift of love, forgiveness, and the resiliency to carry on, in the sure knowledge, that what we presently accept as a tragedy, will surely be overcome.