The Pursuit Of Happiness

I dont believe you can really seperate art and creativity from emotion, so sorry but I'm going to go on an emo trip here. You can always look at other blogs or websites if you get bored, but this is important to my work.
I want to comment on this story -
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6711071.stm
I have been battling depression for years. But the moment things get REALLY bad, like facing bereavement, illness, unemployment - really terrible uncertainty, I feel quite elated! Reading this I realise its not so perverse, also I was told in therapy that - basically - shit happens and its OK to feel like shit when it does. Generaly day-to-day niggles wear one down, but it takes the big things to really slap you in the face and tell you to get over yourself! A good example of this is our current situation at home. My husbands good friend and business partner has only months to live after struggling with the sudden onset of terminal cancer. The whole situation of this illness came as a sudden shock, he was a fit and well man when we had the first company Christmas do. Not only does my husband face losing a great companion but also the prospect of a flourishing business, the papers to dissolve and divide the company are being signed in the next week. Yet we have had the funniest weekend - really sincere and spontaneous humour, not dark and contrived - swapping one liners like "Dawn's broken" "Oh I'll fix it later" at 4 in the morning. Sometimes you just have to sigh and accept things instead of thinking you should be singled out for more favourable treatment by some greater power. Human beings are capable of such courage in the face of adversity, look at the Blitz spirit, but sadly these days when we are being saturated by images of the ideal we find it hard to dig down and find these resources.
When we do, its amazing how much perspective you can have in the world, you realise whatever you do its not the be-all-and-end-all, puts the ego in its place, allows you to feel really oceanic and part of nature and what's going on around you. Its important to realise how precious life is, and how your plans can go a bit wrong and you can still survive, maybe go on to be stronger.
The best thing is, you can turn around to people who say "You make your own luck" and tell them they're talking bollocks, and you can do this with some authority and confidence - seriously I think people who say this are really trying to fool themselves. Failure is inevitable at some point, so is bad luck. As the saying goes - there's nothing certain in this world except death and taxes. Well it catches up with you in the end. The Inland Revenue's been on my case as well!
Life is not all wonderful. If it was, we'd be bored, we wouldn't appreciate the good times. In a nutshell - into every life a little rain must fall - and - like the grass - we need the rain to grow..