I don't want to come over all worthy but it's quite tricky to post something about feeling all "can't wait for spring" when I've just read that in Haiti 80% of people live on less than £1.22 a day. Such was their life before the devastating earthquake.
Admittedly, I don't get to watch the television news much, if at all, so while I listened to radio reports the reality seemed too.....far away for me.
But reading a newspaper, the words seem to sink into a deeper level. For me - apart from the incredible bad luck of the country and the absolutely horrific and helpless situation the Haitians find themselves in - for me, the most distressing thing I read about related to children.
How there are many just dazed, confused and frightened amid the rubble. Completely alone, their family presumably dead or trapped. They are without shelter, medical aid or food and water. And, worse, they will be prey to being abused.
And I've just watched Kevin McCloud visit the slums of Mumbai where he discovered that despite poor sanitation, health, education not to mention working and living conditions, the people in the slums had "a knack for happiness".
Amazing.
There is a sense of impotency you feel watching and reading all this. Money, of course, helps but my hand-wringing won't. Apart from digging deep, there doesn't seem a lot I can do.
Apart from, that is, perhaps living the best life I can. To develop a Knack For Happiness. To be truly grateful for everything I have. To just suck up the sometimes unpleasant, uncomfortable or inconvenient situations or thoughts that occur.
No doubt, in a month or so, when the images, words and horrors have receded, I will be back to my self-absorbed and, at times, self-pitying, ways.
When I do I shall just have to re-read this post. And work a little harder on my Knack.
