what is life?

what is life without changes,
without new things and challenges,
without strangers becoming friends and relationships growing deeper,
without new thoughts and ideas,
without seasons and phases,
without mountain tops and valleys,
without days lived through fires and weeks lived through warm summer days,
without bluesy mondays and thank goodness its fridays,
without love and loss,
without hope and despair,
without times of great joy and times of great pain,
without greater depths and deeper understandings,
without tasting new foods and smelling new smells,
without hearing new languages and seeing new faces,
without seeing the earth wither and then come alive again?

for how do we truly know joy without knowing pain,
or know what we've missed without seeing what was missing all along,
or know how good fridays can be after living through mondays,
or know what true hope is without living through those months of despair,
or know what new growth and life is without seeing the sadness of death,
or know that we are standing on the mountain top without walking up the steep climb from that valley?

this is life. and to know its true greatness, you must go through its hardships. i welcome life. but am i ready for it?