Observations/Reflections: On Life and the Sweet Bitter
Status: Dictated but Not Reviewed
Published: 10/19/2011
Written: 2/09/2010

When one has lived long enough and yet somehow maintained a grateful heart in the midst of the human condition, life itself may be thought of as bitter-sweet. There is the bitter, the horrific pain. And there is the sweet, the inexplicable joy. Either side of this reality can come upon one suddenly. Indeed, I am often ambushed by the bitter, but just as often ambushed by the sweet. I might, then, think of life as the bitter-sweet, but I choose to see it as the inverse: the sweet-bitter. This may seem like a semantic difference. It is more. It is a choice to emphasize the "sweet". It is a choice to allow one's gratitude to outweigh one's horror.

My life is sweet-bitter.