Sadness, the blues and melancholy

I'm not sure that I speak for everyone when I speak about this topic. So I speak only for myself.

Often I am sad. Understandable.

Sometimes I sink into the blues. Seems natural.

Many times I am embraced by melancholy. Feels familiar but uncomfortable.

It doesn't bother me that I experience these emotions. What bothers me is that I work very hard to ignore them, to avoid them, to declare them unnecessary, nuisances, bad bad bad things.

As if to say

WHY can't I be HAPPY all the time??

Is anyone really happy all the time? And if it's possible to be happy all the time, and you don't experience sadness, the blues and melancholy ... then how do you really know when you're truly happy?

I'm thinking that sometimes you must dip into the darkness in order to appreciate the light.