A tenderness inside me bumps against the crazy ugliness in the world.

I see so much good around me; and so many whose pain and suffering could drag them into terrible anguish and anger but who lift themselves from the muck.  Their courage gladdens my heart and at the same time, gives me pause for a bit of self-study.  I know it’s not a competition, this life of ours, but I would lose if judged by my capacity for walking through travails without lament.

The desire to step on cobblestones and broken curbs without crying nudges me forward in the longest year in history.

Yesterday I leaned a new trick from my twenty-three-year-old secretary, Miranda Erichsen.  I’ll share it with you:  If 55,000 tries did not work, go for 55,001.

Here’s to my lunch-buddies, Miranda and Jenna, who brighten my shabby days and lighten my grumpy moods with the freshness of their outlooks.  It’s the fifth day of the twenty-ninth month in My Year Without Complaining.  I want to run away but Miranda says I can’t.  So, life continues.

Come drink coffee on my porch some day; and walk among the flowers.