Two nights ago my nephew, Kai, was born. His entry to this world is just one small step in the great struggle of living. The Buddhist maxim “life is suffering” has never held greater significance to me than it does now. The things that are valuable - life, love, education, peace - are also the things that take the most work, pain, and sacrifice.

After relatively short but painful labor, my sister needed an emergency ceaserian in order to ensure the safety of both mother and child. They are both happy and healthy, but I cannot help but look at this one little birth as a microcosm for life on a grand scale. Literal blood, sweat, and tears went into his birth as if there is some cosmic balance demanding struggle - feeding off pain - in exchange for one beautiful healthy baby boy.

Yet, which one of us cannot say the same about nearly every day of our adult lives? What day goes by without some disappointment, pain, overextension, or difficult decisions?

When is suffering not present, even in moments of joy?

It is those joyous moments, however fleeting, that make everything worth the cost of human spirit. For years, I have seen difficulty as the norm with life offering pit stops for smiles and laughter that only serve to underscore how hard the rest of living can be.

But, yesterday I held him for the first time, and in my arms I carried not a baby but the incarnation of love immortal. I bore the years that went into his being and saw the road, still under construction, that lay before him. Kai serves as living proof that the suffering of life, great or minor, will deliver happiness as a reminder of how good it is to have life. I will always look at him and see this baby, so wanted and loved by his family for years before his conception, and know that the good can always outweigh the bad in the most miraculous of ways.