David Larby

That may sound glib.

It may sound naive.

Life is far more complicated than that.

I won't argue with you.

I know that that's true.

No one makes it through their whole life intact.

If you talked to every pillow I've had in my life, you would hear about plenty of tears.

If you stole my journal from my hotel room, you would read about plenty of fears.

If I'd had the emotional literacy when I was younger, you'd have heard me articulate pain.

I do all I can to avoid all of those states, but I'm sure that I'll feel them again.

I'm saying all this with a smile on my face, not because I don't understand language.

I just know there's far more for my feelings in store.

I look on the bright side.

It's a habit.

Because even in the very worst of times, when it seems that I'll always feel down, I've learned over time, in the darkest of skies, there will come a break in the clouds.

I don't think that it's naive at all to look for joy in the everyday.

In fact, if I'm ever to be truly content, it seems to me to be the only way.

There is nothing too small to be happy about.

I mean, truly, nothing at all.

And because I take small joys most seriously, they stack up to be rather tall.