Having empathy for the suffering in both other people and yourself does not close the door on still finding at least some amount of inner joy or peace. If you can only have any amount of joy when every other living being in the universe is totally free of suffering, then you are doomed to never have even an ounce of happiness.

> I'm not going to pretend this life is a paradise

Who has ever claimed that it is?

Leibniz.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best_of_all_possible_worlds