"Sadness is but a wall between two gardens"

Sadness serves as a powerful metaphorical barrier, imagined as a wall, separating two beautiful and fertile spaces, gardens, that symbolize periods of happiness, growth, or contentment in life. The image conjures the idea that sorrow, while often experienced as a formidable and isolating force, is not an endless void but rather a temporary obstacle. Both before and after sadness, life offers flourishing possibilities; joy and fulfillment exist on either side. This perspective reframes melancholy not as a permanent state or a defining characteristic, but as a transitional passage.

A wall, though it divides and restricts, is also a finite structure. It is neither infinite nor insurmountable. Just as a wall can be climbed, opened, or circumnavigated, sadness has the potential to be overcome or processed. The beauty of using “gardens” highlights not only the intrinsic value lying beyond sadness, but also the notion that happiness and prosperity are recurring, regenerative forces. After all, gardens cycle through seasons; moments of barrenness or dormancy are as natural and necessary as the times of brilliant bloom.

The metaphor suggests that sadness is not merely a void but something that offers perspective and contrast, giving appreciation for the “gardens” that lie on either side. Without the intervening wall, the experience of one garden after the next might blur together, the sense of beauty dulled by continuity. It is the existence of hardship, of sorrow, that shapes our understanding and gratitude for joy. In this sense, sadness becomes both a test and a testament to the cyclical nature of human experience. What lies ahead, as suggested by the promise of another garden, reassures us that despair gives way, eventually, to renewal and hope.