"Do as the Sundial - count only the happy hours"

This quote was written ump-teen times into friendship books in scrawly pupil's writing.

Husband is recovering, in tiny steps, and we are thankful.

I have not much access to the Internet at the moment, so I could not read the post which 'Pondside' mentioned (I might have got it all wrong) - but it seems that 'Friko' remarked about bloggers who always write about their happy life instead of showing 'life as it is'. 

First: look at the 'Idiot Gardener' - he uses the hyperbole, exaggerating misfortune and crudeness to make you laugh. 

Second: as I posted about our misfortune to inform you why I can't comment on your blogs I hope I was not wallowing in self-pity. 

Because I am convinced that seeing the world negative (in their eyes = Realism - being positive they call "seeing life through rose-tinted glasses", meaning daftness) is not an expression of 'thinking' and 'being realistic'. In (modern) literature awful unhappiness even seems to be a synonym for being ART. (I am partaking in a Literary circle in Berlin - and every book we read is more depressing than the one before). 

I like to be entertained and amused, superficial as this might seems to the gloomy people without the trace of a smile on their faces - life is so hard! I can't grasp it: they have friends, shelter, nourishment and so on - but nineteen out of twenty look discontent and disgusted.  

I found out that even in the eye of the cyclone I am able to notice a bit of beauty: the shrill chasing of the swallows, the soft smell of the sweet peas, the sun on my skin. Though I feel pain or grief I still have a part of the Tao or God in my soul which thankfully notices that Life as a whole is a miracle and beautiful. 

To notice this, I think, is a sort of discipline that one can learn. 

Lamenting, moaning, complaining - in short: the full monty - can be an unhealthy addiction (the body produces adrenalin in doing so - you give yourself a kick to which you really can get addicted). 

I don't speak of denying pain or sorrow. They exist, and one has every right to be unhappy and full of anxiety. But there are people - who are not even afflicted - who wallow in 'Think what might have happened!' (on the first day after Husband's accident one woman told me -well-meaning, of course - that I might claim a wheelchair for Husband! She also knew that all the hard-working doctors were fools, doing everything wrong, the nurses were lazy, the social system is going down the trubes, and that other people had experienced REAL misfortune (which she depicted in a litany of heard-of gruesome pictures). 

After that I almost needed a hospital bed too :-) 

Such negative people are often also very rude in other situations - they "call a spade a spade" - well, well, well... 

Now give me my rose-tinted sun-glasses again!  

Here and now I want to thank our lot of lovely, helpful, wonderful friends and acquaintances, want to thank you for your support: we are very, very grateful for that!