We climbed Mt. Gassan today. On the way up, it was beautiful, a bit overcast with light shining through and highlighting patches of green all around us. Really quite a view to behold. Then on the way back, it was foggy the whole time. It even rained on us for a few minutes there. On the way back, we could only see about 20 or so metres in any direction, the fog was that bad.

It got me thinking, the way up was better than the way down, at least in terms of filming interesting things, so much so that I sort of reminisced the way up when we were coming down. The good came before the bad, so to speak, and I was thinking that I should have appreciated the good more when I had it.

But had it been the opposite way around, had the visibility been poor on the way up, but great on the way down, you know I think I would have enjoyed it more than what actually did happen. I think I would have enjoyed the good more having already experienced the bad.

Of course this is just an isolated example, but this tells me that if you’ve gone through something bad, it gives you more power to enjoy something when it’s good.

To be clear, I try not to look at things as inherently good or bad, they just are. This is a teaching from Buddhism that I think is quite insightful. When you don’t place a meaning on something in this way, it makes it a hell of a lot easier to accept, and then learn from.