But don’t forget to celebrate the wins!

On Saturday morning, my son came home with a collection of prizes he’d won in his sailing races. It lifted me from the self-pity of ‘I am getting worse’ to the delight of realising that there can always be successes in the lives of people close to you. I look beyond myself and feel so much pride. We can’t always win, but somebody else can. There’s a lesson there, about taking joy in the successes of others. Often social media offers me a choice between envy and delight in the wins of somebody else. There is always a choice. It is very hard, but if we move away from bitterness towards shared happiness, there is life there.

I could waste my time on negative emotions, or let in selfless, affirming delight. It’s the difference between a straight tree and a crooked one. Which would you rather be?