Hesperis,

What I am hearing here is the feeling "but you don't GET how hard this IS..."

What I am trying to say to you, sweetie, is that I DO know how hard it is, because I've lived through and AM OVERCOMING challenges equal to yours. That it CAN be done, you ARE doing it, you WILL do it, and... that there are a few tricks to doing it that I can share with you, if in your own perfectly-excellent thinking they seem applicable to your situation.

The fact that I have lived through and am overcoming things is one reason we were able to offer any help from here. You watch, before you know it you will be one of the people helping people caught in what seems like an unwinnable fight.

I know you are grateful. I'm suggesting you resist the urge to pay attention to the despair-- who needs steenkin' despair????-- and keep yourself in that gratitude mode... not gratitude to individuals, but gratitude to the universe that each day holds so many blessings you can't count them all. THEN you can build from strength to strength, instead of clawing your way out of crash after crash.

Venting while fixed on good news is just more productive than hollering "ouch," as a means of using venting effectively.

~Susan