Bad things happen, even to good people

But that might be a good thing in the end.

Is it greater kindness to have lives full

Of peaks and valleys that teach us to bend

And  not break the first time that our plans fail?

Trials that implant toughness in our hearts

that we might not be brittle and not wail

at setbacks that are always, of life a part?

But even more than that, to add contrast,

To make us relish ev’ry good moment

And in dark moments to reach out and grasp

And fight for light and never relent

Because we know the beauty of what we miss

And we crave it in righteous avarice.