Courage… Is not only standing up to ravening lions In the jungle.. How often does that happen in one’s everyday life? Courage is… feeling sorrow A dreadful emptiness of one’s heart, Which brings tears springing swiftly to one’s eyes… Which saps the energy to do anything… To battle that inertia, Digging deep to find the wellsprings of strength To go on with one’s life; To know(not just think) that whatever sorrow it is, There is nothing that some man or woman has not faced before. And probably handled better than one has. To reassure oneself that this sorrow, this emptiness Has been felt by others, Who have faced it And moved on, vanquishing it in doing so. To reason, therefore, through that cloud of sadness That this sorrow will pass.. (Knowing that others have borne a burden Does not make it any easier for one to bear) To take strength from the knowledge That one is not alone, And to go on without complaint… To even try and laugh about the pain that cuts into one’s heart… That is courage. I hope I have it.

If you felt empathetic on reading that, it proves my point…there is no sorrow that someone has not faced before!

Oh! All that lofty-sounding verse is because I am missing my little Biddles SOOOO intensely…it’s nothing more that the simple fact of her having started day-care! Don’t laugh, my friends…the pain is more awful because I thought I was a rational being, and had accepted her going to daycare and that I would be happy to go back home…and here I am, struggling to hold my tears in!

Do cheer me up, my dear friends…YOU are another source of strength for me.