Or so I heard Michael Caine saying a long time ago. I have been thinking about attitudes yet again recently and have been wondering if we have it all wrong.

Maybe we need to stop waiting for a fix and start learning to live as we are. I have spent a lot of time thinking about how amazing my life would be if I could walk anywhere I liked, stand for as long as I pleased and take spontaneous trips, not meticulously planned outings that revolve around the nearest toilet or how flat the ground is.

To wait like that is to throw away all the days we are given right now, however imperfect. I have got to know people who think so carefully about what would make things easier for me and I’m so so thankful for them. Without my current physio I would not have started weight-bearing exercises to help my hip to heal, without being introduced to tricycles I would have never felt the wind in my hair as I whizz down hills in the park, without my friend I would have said no to ever speaking in front of other people again, without my family, I would have forgotten how healing it is to laugh, without my mum and dad, I would have achieved nothing.

I wonder if I would know the extent of help and consideration and kindness if I could do everything by myself? I hanker after good health but, painfully, I have to acknowledge that when things go wrong, a lot of things go right.

Can you see that in your own life? In some way I hope you don’t, but wherever you are hurt, look for the outbursts of love that come to you. If you have lost someone or some part of yourself, that can never be replaced, I wish it could, but there are people and things standing on hand to help you, when you are ready. I know it is a hard way of looking at things, but when you most need it, help will come. At least, that is my hope for you, and for me.

On a more spiritual note, the faith I follow is concerned about this upside down way of looking at things too . In the Bible you can read of the weak being strong, the child becoming teacher, the Servant being King. You might think you have nothing, but look again and you might discover you have more than you think.

My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak,
but God remains the strength of my heart; He is mine forever
Psalm 73: 26 (NLT)