Someone once told me that happiness isn't always joy; sometimes it's just the helplessness of getting through life. But I didn't believe them. I thought my future would be utterly romantic. The older I got, the more I realized that nothing ever goes as you wish. Still, whenever I think of her, I feel that life is also about simply being alive, and being alive means being free from harm at the hands of others. She was someone with a hard life, but she was also fortunate. In this lifetime, she was loved, and she loved others. She was someone's wife, someone's mother, and someone's daughter. But which of those roles had she chosen? She had never been allowed to choose for herself. Sometimes I wonder if her optimism and broad-mindedness came entirely from my guilt, or perhaps from my envy of her happy life.
Theme: Face the world with a smile. Life is full of helplessness, but accept it with grace
