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Every once in a while it’s important to take to heart the wisdom of the British philosopher Eric Idle, who encouraged those hanging around him to “always look on the bright side of life.”

This is one of those times.

Before we get there, however, let’s take a moment to understand why we just might want to do that: Locally, the ongoing, and seemingly never-ending problems of homelessness and fentanyl overdoses continue to confound those searching for meaningful and impactful solutions.

On the state level, the Legislature is tasked with plowing through dozens if not hundreds of bill proposals left twisting in the wind during the Senate walkout. And if that wasn’t enough, we discover that a data breach at the Department of Motor Vehicles has left some 3.5 million of us fearing the worst.

Meanwhile, nationally — nah, let’s not go there, ’tis a silly place.

“When you’re chewing on life’s gristle,” Idle recommends, “don’t grumble, give a whistle; and this’ll help things turn out for the best.”

Things such as the following:

Let’s start in Phoenix, where Ruth and Walter Coppock proved that it’s never too late to be young at heart.

The Coppocks are the owners of the new Northridge Apartments — 10 units, on property they own, that replace a pair of duplexes that were destroyed in the Almeda Fire.

Ruth, aged 100, and her 96-year-old husband, Walt, told those involved they wanted to give back to community and give neighbors, including families, a place to call home.

“At our age,” Ruth said at last week’s ribbon-cutting ceremony, “it was sort of a ridiculous thing to do.”

Not at all, Ruth. Not at all.

Speaking of bringing something back to life, let’s head to Jacksonville — where the doors have been reopened at a Rogue Valley landmark.

The Restaurant at Jacksonville Inn has begun serving customers at the dining spot which created a huge pit in the stomach of local diners when it closed in January.

The fine dining portion of The Restaurant opened first, with a bistro area and menu beginning service over the Father’s Day weekend for those whose palates tend more toward burgers than chorizo foam and truffle hollandaise.

The new owners and operators say they hope to offer a menu and service worthy of continuing the Jacksonville Inn’s legacy.

“It’s definitely a prime location,” Irina Colburn says. “Whenever we talked about opening a restaurant, this is always what I envisioned.”

Finally, we find ourselves 40 feet above White City — certainly not a prime location — where a frightened kitten found itself meowing for help for three days recently.

Thanks to the care of neighbors and a ladder truck from Fire District No. 3, the kitten was brought back to terra firma — still a’quiver, but otherwise not the worse for wear.

That was only half the problem, though, as the search for the kitten’s owners proved fruitless. When a family member of one of the rescue firefighter’s stepped up, however, the kitten (eventually named Hugo) had found itself a new family.

And, as with the soon-to-be residents of Northridge Apartments and diners at The Restaurant at Jacksonville Inn, a new home.