Vanity

I hadn't read the book of Ecclesiastes for quite a while, or even thought about it, until this morning.  I went out to milk Jody and bottle-feed Penny, and that's when it began:  "Vanity," I heard the voice in my head say, "it's all vanity."   
Just for today, I wish I hadn't started a garden.  I wish I had not bought those stupid chickens.  Right now, I could sell every cow on the place and not blink an eye.  
The other day I fried up a big mess of morel mushrooms and they didn't even taste good, because Cliff wasn't enjoying them with me.  
Two of my apple trees are blooming for the first time this year.  I couldn't care less.

Ecclesiastes 2:4-6   ⁴I made my works great, I built myself houses, and planted myself vineyards. ⁵ I made myself gardens and orchards, and I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. ⁶ I made myself water pools from which to water the growing trees of the grove..... then on to verse 11: 

Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done
And on the labor in which I had toiled;
And indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind.
There was no profit under the sun.

I don't care what's growing in the garden.  Oh, I go ahead and plant and hoe and till, because to not do so would mean I have no hope of anything getting better than it is right now.  And of course, things will get better.
Cliff is so tired of hurting.  It seems that anywhere I touch him, it hurts.  I have never seen him more depressed than he is right now.  
So today he will go in to have the stent removed that was placed in a bile duct last week, and a longer stent put in.  That means he'll have a very sore throat again, since this procedure involves the doctor going down his throat with some kind of instrument.  
He could barely talk last weekend as a result of this same operation.
On the bright side, he ate two honest-to-goodness meals yesterday and enjoyed them.  

Forgive me for being such a downer.  I usually have so much fun in my life.  I love sharing my adventures with my readers.  I hesitated to do this entry, but sometimes I just want to "keep it real".  This is what's been going through my head this morning.    

 1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

² “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher;
“Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”

³ What profit has a man from all his labor
In which he toils under the sun?
⁴ One generation passes away, and another generation comes;
But the earth abides forever.
⁵ The sun also rises, and the sun goes down,
And hastens to the place where it arose.
⁶ The wind goes toward the south,
And turns around to the north;
The wind whirls about continually,
And comes again on its circuit.
⁷ All the rivers run into the sea,
Yet the sea is not full;
To the place from which the rivers come,
There they return again.
⁸ All things are full of labor;
Man cannot express it.
The eye is not satisfied with seeing,
Nor the ear filled with hearing.

⁹ That which has been is what will be,
That which is done is what will be done,
And there is nothing new under the sun.
¹⁰ Is there anything of which it may be said,
“See, this is new”?
It has already been in ancient times before us.
¹¹ There is no remembrance of former things,
Nor will there be any remembrance of things that are to come
By those who will come after.