My life is about ups and downs, great joys and great losses.

Isabel Allende, the great storyteller whose words carry both tenderness and fire, once spoke with the voice of one who has walked the valleys and climbed the peaks of existence: “My life is about ups and downs, great joys and great losses.” In these few words she captures the essence of the human journey. For life is not a steady plain, but a landscape of mountains and abysses, of harvests and droughts, of laughter and tears. To live fully is to accept both the sweetness and the bitterness, the crown and the cross, the dance and the silence.

The ancients taught this rhythm of existence. The Greeks knew it as tyche, the turning of fortune’s wheel: today one is exalted, tomorrow one is cast down. The Stoics counseled their disciples to welcome both fortune and misfortune, for both are threads woven into the same tapestry. So too does Allende remind us that a life without great losses cannot taste the fullness of great joys. The one gives meaning to the other, as night deepens our love of dawn.

Her own life embodies this truth. Isabel Allende was forced to flee her homeland of Chile after the fall of democracy and the rise of dictatorship. She knew exile, the tearing away of roots, the pain of separation. She also knew the anguish of losing her daughter Paula, who died young after a long illness. Yet amidst these sorrows she created luminous works of literature, novels filled with passion, memory, and hope. From her grief she carved beauty, from her exile she wove stories that touched the hearts of millions. In her words, we see how loss and joy walk hand in hand.

History too bears witness to this law of life. Think of Nelson Mandela. His life was marked by the joy of freedom and the crushing weight of twenty-seven years of imprisonment. He endured profound losses—years stolen, friendships broken, a family separated. Yet these losses deepened his strength and made his eventual joy all the greater. His story, like Allende’s, shows us that greatness is not the absence of sorrow, but the power to transform sorrow into wisdom.

It is a dangerous illusion to seek only joys and to flee from losses. For in doing so, one avoids life itself. The heart that never risks, never loves, never dares, may avoid grief, but it will also avoid exaltation. True living requires the courage to embrace the whole cycle of existence. The ups and the downs are not enemies, but companions; together they teach the soul to be resilient, humble, and grateful.

The wisdom of Allende’s words is therefore both tender and heroic. She teaches us not to be ashamed of sorrow nor intoxicated by joy, but to walk steadfastly through both. The great joys remind us of the gift of life; the great losses remind us of its precious fragility. Both deepen the heart and make it capable of compassion. The one who has wept deeply can also laugh deeply; the one who has lost much can also cherish much.

The lesson for us, children of tomorrow, is this: do not measure your life only by happiness, nor despair when losses come. Instead, see them as the rhythm of existence, the ebb and flow of the great tide. Let joy lift you without making you arrogant, and let loss humble you without breaking you. In this balance lies wisdom, and in this balance lies peace.

Practical action follows: Each day, give thanks for the joys, both great and small. When losses come, allow yourself to grieve, but also to learn, to deepen, to grow. Do not harden your heart against sorrow, for it is the teacher of compassion. Do not cling to joy as though it will last forever, but savor it fully while it is present. By doing so, you will live the truth Isabel Allende speaks: that a full life is made not of perfection, but of ups and downs, great joys and great losses—and it is in embracing both that the soul becomes whole.