Recently I watched the movie Living. It’s about an elderly man who has worked as a civil servant for decades. His monotonous, repetitive life changes when he receives a diagnosis that he only has six months to live, prompting him to search for meaning in the small, everyday moments.

The reason life is precious is because it has an end. Thanks to death, we are given the conditions to assign meaning to our lives—what an irony. But if we look around, it isn’t that difficult to find out that unpleasant and difficult things bring about meaningful outcomes:

• To gain health, we do exercises we don’t want to do, resist the urge to indulge in food, and pull ourselves away from the comfort of the couch and short-form videos.

• To have a unique perspective, we give up the dopamine rush of social pleasures and instead read books, and endure the pain of ‘doing nothing’ in meditation to synthesize our thoughts.

• For the long-term value of a company, we fire a close colleague who lacks capability, and even if it leads to dislike from others, we say what we believe is right.

Perhaps, as Schopenhauer suggested, our happiness lies in acknowledging that our desires and wants will never fully be satisfied, and by further accepting that the default of life might be suffering. In doing so, we can be encouraged to endure the meaningful hardships, and in the process, find great significance and joy in life’s small moments.

The image of the protagonist in Living, smiling on his final swing after finding deep meaning and happiness in his once ‘boring’ routine, lingers in my mind. Perhaps suffering may not only bring pain but also the moment when we realize life’s impermanent nature. It may offer a chance to see the light of happiness on the other side of the shade.