Days full of fret and care

Last night I switched off the news just before the weather forecast started.  I couldn't face yet more forecasts of wind and rain and tales of constant bombardments of storms from the Atlantic.  I just had to look out of the window to see what was happening. This reminded me of a quote I'd seen the other day from the wonderfully funny and insightful writer, Jerome K Jerome:

“But who wants to be foretold the weather? It is bad enough when it comes,
without our having the misery of knowing about it beforehand.”

I've got the impression that it isn't just me who has found the incessantly bad weather rather depressing.  I can't get into the garden to do very much, even planning for the year ahead seems a bit silly when I can barely walk across the lawn without squelching and sinking a little.  When trying to cheer myself up the other day I found a number of quotes from Jerome K Jerome that I really enjoyed.  so I thought I would post these along with some pictures showing our garden in much sunnier times:

“The day has been so full of fret and care, and our hearts have been so full of evil and of bitter thoughts, and the world has seemed so hard and wrong to us. Then Night, like some great loving mother, gently lays her hand upon our fevered head, and turns our little tear-stained faces up to hers, and smiles; and though she does not speak, we know what she would say, and lay our hot flushed cheek against her bosom, and the pain is gone. Sometimes, our pain is very deep and real, and we stand before her very silent, because there is no language for our pain, only a moan. Night's heart is full of pity for us: she cannot ease our aching; she takes our hand in hers, and the little world grows very small and very far away beneath us, and, borne on her dark wings, we pass for a moment into a mightier Presence than her own, and in the wondrous light of that great Presence, all human life lies like a book before us, and we know that Pain and Sorrow are but angels of God.”

A prescription for life:

“1lb beefsteak, with

1pt bitter beer

every 6 hours.

1 ten-mile walk every morning.

1 bed at 11 sharp every night.

And don't stuff your head with things you don't understand.”

“Seek out some retired and old-world spot, far from the madding crowd, and dream away a sunny week among its drowsy lanes - some half-forgotten nook, hidden away by the fairies, out of reach of the noisy world - some quaint-perched eyrie on the cliffs of Time, from whence the surging waves of the nineteenth century would sound far-off and faint.” 

 

People who have tried it, tell me that a clear conscience makes you very happy and contented; but a full stomach does the business quite as well, and is cheaper, and more easily obtained.

 We are so bound together that no man can labour for himself alone. Each blow he strikes in his own behalf helps to mold the universe.

Once we discover how to appreciate the timeless values in our daily experiences, we can enjoy the best things in life.