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 bittersweet. There is the bitter, the horrific pain. There is also 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 I am 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.
