We all experience “down time”, or moments of sadness in life. No-one can be happy 100% of the time. Even the Dalai Lama feels sad once in a while. Sadness itself does not cause suffering, nor does the experience of pain, be it physical or emotional, cause suffering. Rather it is our ATTACHMENT to temporary or transitory feeling states, experienced as positive or negative emotions, that causes suffering. Remember the only constant in life is change…nothing lasts forever. Pleasure and Pain come and go as brief bursts of energy, flashing pulsations of light vibrating across transitory moments, temporary feeling states that remind us we are human. Both experiences are necessary to the human condition, not so much polar opposites, as polar extremes, incremental variations in degree traveling along the same continuum. When there is less pain, there is more pleasure and vice versa. If you are feeling “down,” remember it is just a pitstop along the pleasure circuit, soon to be a memory, a reference point by which you may recognize tomorrow’s joy when it becomes the present moment. May your days of Love, Light and Laughter outnumber your days of pain, darkness and tears.
Rejoice in your Humanity! Rejoice in being Alive! If you are not feeling pain nor are you feeling pleasure…you are no longer among the living. In other words, keep it moving! The cycle of life is one of perpetual motion! Roll with it! Don’t get stuck on yesterday’s news, all that matters is NOW! BAM! And NOW! … and NOW … 
© Lisa Pearlman 2/13/12
