My daughter Arianne is spending four months in Samoa - a place that by all accounts is a paradise. She sends along such beautiful pictures for me to enjoy. Yet her experience in Samoa - much like the journey each of us take through life - is a mixture of both pleasure and pain. This past week her whole family has been sick with a variety of ailments.
Perhaps that is the purpose of our existence - the majesty, mystery and paradox.
We can't have mortal life without the possibility of death.
We can't have health without sickness.
We can't have joy without pain.