Blessings while you still breathe

Solitude can chill like the winter gusts,

That crust and harden the depths of one's heart,

Gratitude for less than what others around you have taken for granted is

Herculean, to put it mildly,

My soul languishes in the winter of discontent,

All my former dearest have forgotten me,

Spat at me secretly,cursed me silently,

As though the curse of a blighted childhood weren't cruel enough,

Yet I discover anew daily, that the world owes me happiness not,

A song that encapsulates the the turmoil of a meaningful life,

Can assuage the perception of a meaningless one,

By teaching us that Fate can bless and blight in equal measure,

That Life can tear down and mend in quick succession,

That the pain of unendurable loss can fortify the soul,

Take one to the brink of sanity and recoil one back,

I learnt this today:

Take not the merest blessing lightly,

For when it is taken from you, you may wish for it back

More than all the earthly possessions of the mortal coil