Helpful

'Tis the season when other people do nice stuff with other people and post about it on Facebook, so that those of us who don't can practice letting go of envy. I'm very grateful for the service they provide...along with the folk who complain about trials that also seem pretty enviable to me!

Today I've been being grateful for the opportunities for personal growth my own trials have given me. Well, trying to anyway. There's been a lot of physical discomfort in the form of hand cramps and general aches and pains from being quite active yesterday, so they've  made me re-evaluate the 'pace yourself' advice I scorn...and scorn it once again! It's still important to me to make my home as pleasant as can be before I'm too ill to care, and I do get a lot of pleasure even from the small successes along the way. The lack of success at getting drivers to turn their radios off on request, has reminded me I have to find other ways to deal with the mental stress of the hours of noise and jabber, after all I can't ask the staff to be quiet when they talk to each other across the room, or too loudly about sensitive subjects, or very loudly at the very hard of hearing gentleman who has lost his hearing aid so I must just get better at bearing it even if I can't manage a grin. And a call from the DWP saying they wanted to talk to me about something (at a time when I could not) led me to cast my mind once again over my recent life and double check I'm not guilty of any punishable benefit crime...and decide that whatever it is, it's something only their devious practices could come up with and I just have to brace myself for another financial blow.

I give thanks for the member of staff who finally managed to staunch the bleeding when my fistula became a fountain at the end of the day. For part making my dinner before I left at lunchtime as the necessary pressure has made my arm very sore (it may be a risotto, I'll have to let you know as I've never made one before). For pretty sunset skies, the brightness of the crescent moon and the twinkles appearing in windows, gardens and trees along the roadside.