In a Groove

I’m starting to feel good. That feels weird to say – and to feel – with so much horribleness in our world, but I feel like I’m in a bit of a groove. I’ve been less stressed, been sleeping better, had more energy, am in a better mood and just generally feeling good.

I think the break from work over the holidays gave me a chance to refresh and catch my breath and I’ve carried that into the new year. I’m not sure how long it’ll last but I’ll enjoy it for however long it does. I feel like I’m handling the pandemic better and accepting the situation in ways that I wasn’t before. I still feel pain and guilt over the situation around me with so much hate in the world, but I’ve been able to process it and compartmentalize it which has allowed me to feel healthier.

Having the privilege to distance myself from Covid, racial strife, and financial uncertainty is not something I take for granted. But I’ve also realized that I can find hope and optimism in the world around me and it allows me to relax. I also realize that there is a fine line between being in a groove and being in a rut and I’ll need to ensure that I don’t fall into a rut.

Things that have helped me to be more in a groove:

• Reading a good book – Recently finished Transcendent Kingdom and The Midnight Library and I’m now working my way through Barack Obama’s The Promised Land
• Playing soccer once a week has been so nice in having something active to look forward to
• Serving more prepared foods – I don’t love cooking but I do enjoy finding foods that the kids will eat and are simple to prepare. This is an example of lowering my expectations of myself
• Volunteering monthly at The Greater Boston Food Bank – it has felt so good to get out and do something to help others
• Daily Spanish lessons – Duolingo has been a fun daily routine
• Going to bed earlier – getting to sleep closer to 10 than 12 has allowed me to have more energy

And in putting away the holiday decorations we decided to clean our basement storage area. We’ll see how long it stays uncluttered but it’s great to start the year this way (now if only the rest of the house were organized…)

A cleaned out basement storage room is a sign that things are going well

Things that went well this week:

• We have a new President! The inauguration was such a relief. Things won’t change overnight but it’s so much nicer to be moving forward
• We refinanced the mortgage on our house and will lower our monthly payment; it’s basically buying cheaper money but that is how the real estate game is played
• My dad got his first vaccine shot this week (yay, Gramps!)

Things that did not go well:

• US Covid deaths topped 400,000 and worldwide it’s over 2,000,000
• The newer variant of the virus seems to be more contagious; it had seemed unlikely how little it had mutated in a year but our luck has run out
• A road-rage hate crime in our town led to a white man killing a black man by driving over him in his truck; so horrible to have racial violence so close to home and to be reminded that not everyone knows that Black Lives Matter

Random happy find from the web:

• Political turnover is not funny but it’s hard not to smile when the Dutch prime minister rode his bicycle to deliver his resignation to the king because of overzealous tax collectors. We could only dream those were our problems.
• And not a random article, but a photo that makes me smile. A President wearing a mask, signing progressive orders to help those in need.

President Biden – that sounds so much better (Source: USA Today)

Cute puppy photo of the day:

Daisy stole this pink pig by sneaking inside our neighbor’s house and taking it from their dog’s toys