Stitch This

And again I find myself reflecting on how short life can be. A colleague has died very suddenly and unexpectedly. He was in his thirties. I’d known him since he was a junior hire and, while I wasn’t close to him, such a brutal loss stops you in your tracks and makes you reassess. Again.

At the other end of the spectrum a new life began this week, two friends from schooldays have had a beautiful little boy. So lovely. I must be getting maternal (at last!) because the photos I’ve seen thus far have had me melting a little. Perhaps it’s because I’m starting to emerge, blinking, from the tunnel of babyhood. Little One grows more independent (stroppy?!) every day and I can see how he’ll be less reliant on me soon. I partly rejoice (nappies anyone?) but am a little nostalgic. But only a little. I’m enjoying chatting to him so much.

Life’s pains and pleasures are indeed, all relative. There is always somebody who is in need of help compared to you. There is always somebody who you might feel is cruising through life compared to you. What’s important is how you deal with that. Do you peer over the fence and admire the grass enviously, or do you decide to enjoy and/or deal with your own particular patch in solidarity with your neighbours? The former choice achieves nothing but that horrible wormy feeling of jealousy/ discontent. The latter seems to be to way more constructive. Difficult but constructive.

So my thoughts are with both sets of neighbours tonight and I will focus on making my little patch on this plane of existence as green and pleasant as possible. Want to split the cost of some lawn seed?