The more I think about it, the more life seems like a bed sheet that is just a little too short to cover both your head and your feet at the same time.

Consequently, we're challenged to determine what is most important based on our needs - this or that, then or now, him or her. It's not always a choice between two things, but without fail life brings both the good with the bad, and we must navigate both. We can want it all, but at the end of the day we're going to have to make choices, and those choices are going to involve a certain amount of work.

Thing is, once we realize that this is an essential part of living, we can begin to accept those things we cannot change and view it all - suffering, happiness, grief, and joy - as necessary (and beautiful) symptoms of the human experience.

Knowing this might not lessen the pain, but it can certainly strengthen what we learn from it.