A couple of friends had some bad news for me — one disheartening, and the other catastrophic.  I won't go into either of them here, for the sake of privacy, but let's say they cast a serious pall over not just the season but next year as well.

Sobering, to say the least, and a reminder that whatever problems I deal with on my own are middling compared to what other people go through.

You don't have to look very hard to find something to remind you that every day you are still here is a good day, and that "an inch of time is worth a foot of jade," as Zen master Takuan once put it in his koan.