Life is difficult, and then you die. Bummer!!

Scott Peck began his best-selling book with those words-and a few years later, he keeled over from cancer. What an unpleasant way to go. I would like to amend those words (I should have been an editor): Life is difficult, and then you die, you can't take it with you, and doesn't that just suck!!

Really. If I can't take it with me, I'm not going. And if I am forced to go (as we all are, at some point), I will be kicking and screaming, and I will make an almighty fuss. Honestly? I'm not ready to pop my clogs and probably will never be ready. I've wasted too much time already, and I've got a lot of things to do before I stop being a pain in the butt to everyone.

I did absolutely nothing yesterday, in spite of my really good intentions. It rained all day, and it rained so hard, I thought I would have to take a course in ark-building. It was less like rain and more like a monsoon! So I decided to skip the walking, since I don't own a snorkel and flippers, and stay inside and read. Why go out in heavy rain if you don't need to go anywhere? That was my excuse, and I am sticking to it: I saw no point in getting soaked to the skin just to make a point, and develop incipient pneumonia in the process.

Today we were graced with that big yellow ball in the sky: the sun shone, it has been lovely (so far), and it is due to rain again tomorrow - and the rest of the week. No wonder the Brits are such a grumpy lot: they're grey, like the weather-and they do use the weather as an excuse!!

No storage unit today-I have to take a few days to actually put away the things I got out of storage so far. The upside is that I found some nice clothes that the mice didn't pee on-that was a good thing. Believe me, if I see a mouse I will have to hit it with something. First I scream, then I hit. Let them pee all over someone else's clothes. That is incentive to get everything out of there as soon as I can. Plus, I've got some of my ex's stuff - I'm thinking of having a bonfire-complete with marshmallows. Well-could be worse. Could be rats.

Life really is difficult. And all the self-help gurus and all the self-help books and courses, all the people who get very rich from other people's insecurities, can't change that fact: life is difficult, you struggle, things are good, then not so good, it's all swings and roudabouts, and then you keel over. All the self-help experts say the same thing, but in different (sometimes) words. And they make fortunes.

Really, it all boils down to the fact that we need to accept that things happened that we can't change, and that we did the best we could with the information we had at the time, and so did everyone else in our lives. I honestly think that nobody escapes life, and that nobody has ever had an easy life 100% of the time. And if you have had an easy life 100% of the time, I would love to swap places with you for two or three days, just to experience what an easy life is like-I don't know about you, but mine has been filled with drama and melodrama. Any takers to swap places for a few days? I would stake my reputation (such as it is) on the fact that nobody would come forward, even if it was possible.

The point of this rumination exercise? I agree with the (very rich) self-help guys that we need to forgive everyone, regardless of what they did - and forgive ourselves first. Then we need to look hard and find out what we want to do with our lives-what our goals are-and work hard toward fulfilling those goals and ambitions, and not allow anyone to derail us, or anything to stand in our way. Like Nike says: just do it. Nobody lives forever, and who wants to look back and say "why didn't I do that? Why didn't I go for it?" Hey, we just never know when we are going to keel over, so why not live fully while we still have the opportunity? Yeah, I know it's easier said than done-but so is everything.

That will be ten pounds, please.