Keep Calm and Carry On

Things have not exactly been rosy in 2010. I look back at the catalog of catastrophes in my life with more than a little tinge of despair:
-a family friend nearly died and had to have both legs amputated at the knee
-a family friend DID die- but he had a long and happy life
-my university job was in jeopardy and I missed out on both a payrise and increased hours
-there was the 4 Sept quake, 10 days before my birthday
-I suffered from PTSD after the quake
-I then suffered a bout of depression
-I was persecuted in my new job for having said depression
-I had to leave my new job
-my sister-in-law found out she has secondary cancers
-we had more aftershocks after Christmas
-my cat went missing for four days

It doesn't exactly make for joyous reading.
There have been times when I have been ready to throw in the towel and feel sorry for myself, but then I am reminded of a story about my great-Grandmother during WWII. In a freak accident, she fell down the stairs and fell through a plate glass window. She was a mess, as you can imagine, and needed stitches all over her face. Once she was patched up, despite the pain it would have caused with the citric acid, she sat down and ate an orange. Why? Despite the pain, she didn't want to waste her fruit ration, and she had been dying to have an orange for some time.
If she can get through that kind of trauma, my troubles are nothing.

It's tempting to feel sorry for yourself. But then, by stewing on the woe you close yourself off from new possibilities. You're not open to serendipity. So as bad as I feel, I will soldier on, day by day, until the bad times pass.