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For Friday, April 19: Balance Beam

You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness.  Jonathan Safran Foer

We walk a balance beam when we do things to protect ourselves.  If we build walls to protect ourselves from painful things and people then we have also erected walls against happy things and people.  Oh we might have the  intention of the walls being removable or partial but the reality is they aren't.  A wall is a wall and when we feel the need to protect ourselves we build it at the cost of living a full life.  Life is fullest when there is a balance of happiness and sadness.  If we want the full life we must walk the balance beam between the two and not give in to the temptation to protect ourselves to the point of living a lackluster life.  When we learn to embrace the sadness that leads to fuller happiness we navigate the balance beam with perfection.  

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