Faith and fire walking

I was just thinking, as I was putting marmalade on my toast just now that if one does not have some satisfaction in life, one really has nothing. But that comes with a rider...

For instance, today I weeded the front garden and topped it up with wood chips. Not a big thing, unless you know what my front garden looked like 6 months ago, in which case you are probably thinking "the silly bitch has been overdoing it again", and you would be right. The payment for an intense satisfaction at having a tidy front garden for the first time in nearly 13 years is an equal and opposite DISsatisfaction with the spasm and pain in my legs. But still, the day was sufficient unto itself, as every day should be.

My Lady Flatcat said in passing, just the other day, that some small annoyance wouldn't matter in a hundred years time. And she is, of course, right. The broken plate, the unfinished projects, the loss of time to finish living the way you want, the weedy and overgrown garden, these will not be remembered in 100 years time cos we'll all be gone then and so will our kids and if we took anything with us to the Great Beyond, I reckon it's the satisfaction of a job well done. No matter what the job was, we'll take the memories of our achievements with us.

The rider is that we have to search for our own satisfaction; no-one can give it to us.

All we can do is our very best; all that is required is an honest commitment. All that matters is that we were the best people we could be. But it all happens one day at a time, one hour at a time. etc.

Flattie and I keep telling each other that we must have Faith. At the moment neither of us can practice what we preach. There are some jobs that seem to lack any possibly satisfaction, but it's there, buried deep. He'll find it although it will be a hard and painful road through the flames.

That's Life for most of us, eh.

Our lives are made
In these small hours
These little wonders
These twists and turns of Fate
Rob Thomas.