Day 320 - taking a deep breath

 Today is the 5th day of the 46th week, the 16th day of the 11th month, the 320th day of 2023, and:

• Beaujolais Nouveau Day 
• Children's Grief Awareness Day
• Educator for A Day
• Great American Smokeout
• Guinness World Records Day
• Have a Party With Your Bear Day
• Icelandic Language Day
• International Check Your Wipers Day
• International Day for Tolerance
• National Button Day
• National Fast Food Day
• National Indiana Day
• National Parental Involvement Day
• National Philanthropy Day
• National Rural Health Day
• Social Enterprise Day
• Teddy Bear Day [historic] 
• Use Less Stuff Day
• World Pancreatic Cancer Day
•  World Philosophy Day
• and Voyager 1 is 22h 30m 49s of light travel time from Earth, or 24,298,000,000 km / 15,098,000,000 miles / 162.42 AU

Quote of the day:

"How sad would be November if we had no knowledge of the spring."

~ Edwin Way Teale, American naturalist, photographer, and writer 

Yes I wrote yesterday.

No I didn't share what I wrote on social media

Yesterday was one of those days when my mind went totally blank...   well not blank exactly.  My head was just too stuffed with the things pertaining to picayune issues that had come up during the work day, then overwhelmed with "quality of life" discussions about health issues in my family when I got home topped off with having to deal with "Amazon delivery day" and making sure the eleven [yes I said 11] packages that came were all that was supposed to come to be able to form much of a coherent blog post, so I wrote and didn't share it.  

I guess the real reason I felt so overwhelmed is that hope seems in a bit of short supply at the moment. 

 Yes, I have been reading the news again - between the antics of the GOP and the fact that people actually vote these clowns in office, to the lack of respectability of SCOTUS, to banned books and the rewriting of history, to the dire straits of Ukraine and Gaza, to the saber rattling in other countries to climate change crashing down upon us....   At home?  health issues everywhere with tough decisions looming ominously.  

So , it appears that no matter where I look, nothing is getting better and there isn't a damn thing I can do about any of it.  Yes, I know that every November reminds us there will be a spring, but tomorrow is promised to no one and someday there will be a winter  "... without a spring that I shall ever see.", and I find that cold comfort at the moment.

Snapping oneself out of a negative spiral is not an easy task at any time, and especially when the holidays are ahead.  There have been reams and reams written about how holiday expectations can impact mental health, so I'm well aware of the need to not let my stress get out of hand  

So, deep breath, handle what I can, take it one day [and sometimes one hour] and a time, take care of what is within my sphere of influence or circle of control, and work on being grateful.   It's called living, neh?