…but this is who I am. Thirty years ago a renowned psychological astrologer looked at my birth chart and told me I was a Pollyanna figure – happy, optimistic, starry eyed - who goes out into the world expecting it to be beautiful, and is shocked at how awful it is.
It’s true. And sometimes it overwhelms me, and I am filled with despair, so much so that I don’t want to get out of bed in the morning.
This week I felt unable to take even one more bit of bad news – whether it be Israel ethnic cleansing the Bedouins from their ancient homeland – the Negev desert - (and the New York Times describing it as “regulating settlement”) or a news report about refugee children orphaned in their flight from Syria, or Boris Johnson, mayor of London, saying envy is a good thing because it fuels competition, or a British court ordering that a woman who has had a breakdown be sedated and given a caesarean section and her baby taken away – all without her consent.
I won’t poison your day by referring to any more of the stories that have upset me this week, about which I feel powerless to do anything to make things better, apart from donating money to charity.
Anyway…today I decided I was going to give up reading the news for a while, and concentrate on making heaven here where I am. I bunked off Quaker meeting and sought solace in the garden. The sun was bright and warm and there was lots to do. But I so often get twigs and muck in my eyes, that Dave said I shouldn’t be gardening with my new eye still healing, so I wore his safety glasses. Look carefully and you’ll see them.
I hate snails, but a dear friend persuaded me in the summer to put them in the council compost bin (collected tomorrow) instead of stamping on them. So that’s where this lot went: today’s contribution to a kinder world.
And my next trick is this: every day this week, I’m going to post a photo of something around Hepworth Towers which brings me joy. Eat your heart out, Pollyanna.
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