I’m talking about Murphy’s law here, you know the ‘if anything can go wrong it will’ one.

At the start of today, my husband spoke positively about the week being one full of good things. I entertained that optimism for about 20 minutes. But after fifteen minutes of hoovering, it all disintegrated along with any strength left in my legs.

Truth be told, on days like this, Murphy’s law makes a great deal of sense. Things go wrong all the time, or things that have gone wrong in the past cruelly taint the present.

Now here’s the BUT. Is it actually possible to live a positive life when there’s trouble all around? Could a person acknowledge Murphy’s law but then defy it?

The way I survive is to recognise life is impossibly hard, but to look for even the tiniest shred of hope and hold on to it tightly. You’ve maybe seen that pattern in these blogs, or in my books if you’ve read them. Perhaps you could call it ‘Ruth’s law’ (she says presumptuously).

If you search hard enough, you can find that there’s light at the end of Murphy’s bleak tunnel. So maybe his law has a lot of truth in it, but I’m going to spend my life proving he will never have the last word. Things do go wrong but that’s not the end of the story.

Do you believe that?

I have to.

So go on, laugh in Mr Murphy’s face and butter the toast you’re in the mood for now. ( Just put it on a plate this time.)

*Mr Bumble, Oliver Twist