Learning to Love the Highs and Lows — Because Numb Isn’t Living

Black and white photo of kids on a seesaw in San Martín Totolán, Mexico.

Life doesn’t move in straight lines.
It sways.
It spins.
It breaks your heart, then fills it again.

And for a long time, I fought that.

I wanted the joy without the dip.
The momentum without the pause.
The love without the loss.

But life doesn’t work that way.
And honestly—
would you even want it to?

Because the alternative…
is numb.

No highs.
No real lows.
Just… flat.
Predictable.
Safe.
But empty.

You can’t mute the pain without also muting the joy.
You can’t shut down disappointment without also softening wonder.
It all comes together.

So I stopped bracing against the wave.
And started riding it.

The highs — I savor.
The lows — I learn from.
The in-betweens — I rest.

And somewhere in all of it,
I found something better than control:
aliveness.

You don’t have to love the chaos.
But you can love the ride.
Because feeling everything means you’re still in it.

That’s the Cushy way.

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