be thankful

i keep having to remind myself so I keep going back to Friar Lawrence (in Romeo and Juliet) to help me to be thankful. You remember Romeo is very unhappy at the situation he has found himself in but Friar Lawrence reminds him of everything that he should be grateful for:

What, rouse thee, man! Thy Juliet is alive,

For whose dear sake thou wast but lately dead—

There art thou happy. Tybalt would kill thee,

But thou slew’st Tybalt—there art thou happy.

The law that threatened death becomes thy friend

And turns it to exile—there art thou happy.

It’s called counting your blessings, and I do try to. You know the Homes Stress scale? The Holmes and Rahe stress scale is a list of 43 stressful life events that can contribute to illness. Death of a spouse (or loved one) rates 100 stress points, on the way down to Christmas (12) —or Thanks-giving?—and a traffic ticket (11). Well, you might fall short of life-threatening stress, but these events can make you unhappy or sometimes ill. Think about it but not too much.

I know I am blessed. I have no right to complain. I should be grateful, not un-.

You too.

not to say ruts

That mistake I discovered yesterday about the untravelled bourne—I’ve been making that for years. There’s another one I say, too, and I’m aware of it but I keep doing it. I mix and cross two poems. The first is Break Break Break by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892):

Break break break

On thy cold grey stones, O Sea!

But I continue the quatrain with:

And may there be no moaning of the bar

When I set out to sea.

You see, it even scans and rhymes. But the second two lines are from Tennyson’s Crossing The Bar. I have mixed them up for years and they make perfect sense to me. My brain pathways have become comfortable ruts.

Just so you know.