I wrote a blog post almost 5 years ago titled Sharing the Sweetness and the Sorrows, inspired by the hardships we began facing then. I thought about it recently because we’re still facing hardships, but in a different form (you can learn more about our fight against injustice here), and still finding ways to share the sweetness and sorrows together.
Here’s an excerpt from that post:
In Chinese, they call it tónggāngòngkǔ (同甘共苦), sharing the sweetness and the sorrows, as well as tóngzhōugòngjì (同舟共济), the Chinese version of “we’re in the same boat.” In practice, we know the words all too well. We’ve weathered my sudden job loss and Chinese visa problems, his US visa denial, separation when my company sent me to Taiwan, and months of transitioning to life in the US. We’ve always shared everything in life, and now we share again, even if we wish it weren’t so.
But the other day, I smiled after John repeated the words tónggāngòngkǔ like our daily mantra. “Maybe this trouble isn’t so bad after all,” I said. “Because our relationship isn’t the trouble, it’s our strength.”
Sometimes, the greatest comfort in the face of challenges is knowing you’re not alone.
Wishing you all a wonderful week — I’ll be back on Friday!
