A RING OF CONFIDENCE

I’ve taken the cat’s attention and she’s stunned; one of my long hairs had curled itself on her hip. I am a loose woman and my hairbrush is like a road-sweeper. Old is catching up; I’m slowing down, almost a snail, an underwater creature. But, I am entirely happy – my dreams are returning and staying.

Someone said something on a debate show the other morning about people being miserable; all the phone-in chat was about how bad the world is and how they couldn’t get over the depressing negativity that it could never have a good ending. I immediately noticed that the difference between them and me was that I am not up on current affairs; I don’t read newspapers or watch TV news or the soaps which might mirror national and world events. So that’s the answer to my happiness!

I only watch certain dramas on the box, hate all reality programmes and avoid celebrity anything – especially in magazines. I read novels, poetry, biography, blogs; everything is removed – life in third draft, or more. Maybe I’m living an internal life that is so removed from the outside world that I can only be in the default position, which naturally is happiness. Are hermits happy? Probably.

Of course, I am surrounded by family who live in this big bad world, and am affected when anything happens to them; there’s nothing I can do about that and I don’t dwell on the what if? Things fall out of the sky – they will be borne if they land on me, I won’t worry about things that might not happen.

Meanwhile, a family gathering tomorrow beckons so I’ll expect good weather; we’ve had a couple of dodgy days so I can be quietly confident.