A long and dreary May , the kind the crushes the hopeful expectations so recently delivered by the cracking of the winter death grip . Rainy cold and driving winds that suck the heat from the body and the happiness from the soul .

The real world moves forward , the plants leaf and grow , the birds return , because that is how life works . Life struggles because if it doesn't it dies . The human burden is to want more than life , to remember that better is possible and to yearn for it . To feel sadness and loss when it's absent .

The human joy are those moments of exultation when a perfect day wraps around us like a mothers arms and holds us with loving tenderness . Today we lived again under blue skys and moderate temps , fresh air and bird song , the white noise of the gentle rustle of the leaves .

My day was capped with the 16th birthday of a niece - a sweet and motivated young woman who reassures the old of the continuity of life and the value of having lived it . An event like the day - a moment of exultation .