Why try harder

There's been lots of potential frustration this week - compound fractures of function where the ways you try to fix the thing that isn't working end up causing yet more problems. I try not to share my exasperation here or elsewhere because it always seems to me there's plenty enough folk in the world grumbling about this and that and encouraging others to join them. Sometimes it's just stuff being stuff and it's important not to take it too personally and where people behaving badly are involved I always try to feel sorry for them and go easy on apportioning blame, imagining punishment or thinking 'someone should do something about it'. I'm not always entirely successful and am very aware I go against the social grain in this...so I was really grateful to read something about this approach in a book about a Buddhist master last night. Resolving to try harder, I was (fairly) grateful for the opportunities to put theory into practice this new day brought...

For one thing there was a bag of rubbish by the bins being attacked and scattered by gulls so I went down with a dustpan to scoop it up and discovered it was full of mussel shells and no wonder they couldn't leave it alone. As there were no cars parked in the way I had a good old tidy up of general litter lying about too... What goes around is my hair, and what goes around my hair sometimes is a scrunchie and I've been aware for a week or two a favourite's gone missing so I was astonished after a while to realise a mysterious round object in a muddy tyre track was that very thing! It's scrubbed well too I'm grateful to say.

I give thanks for a pretty sky yesterday evening with streaks of pink cloud in the white and some dark grey ones on the horizon acting as fake mountains, for an orchid (I think!) in the hedgerow and for making fresh bread to go with my slow cooker stew tonight. It's only from a packet but still... After all this activity I've also been grateful for an idle afternoon watching some rather good tennis and listening to Norman Cook's greatest hits...