It might have been the long walk through winter’s dark days that had me grumbling.  Or maybe it was the fact that our household hadn’t been healthy for four months, a certain child wouldn’t obey a single imperative from his mother, or the waterline kept freezing.  I needed some kind of help with overcoming irritability, and it seemed I was nearing the end of my rope. I’d been barking orders all day, and by the time evening fell, I couldn’t have been happier when they all marched over to the neighbors’ house, leaving me with silent surroundings for just an hour. I turned on the evening news and shoveled heaping…