Friday, November 05, 2004

The Come Down

This has been a wild and wooly couple of weeks, what with the lunar eclipse, the Red Sox winning the World Series, switching back from Day Light Savings time and, of course, the elections. No wonder so many people around me seem to be in a daze or disjointed.
Being the empathic sponge that I am, it's been hard because I have spent the week surrounded by students going through the whole election experience for their first time. Emotions were running so high in the lead up and by Wednesday it seemed like so many had had the stuffing knocked out of them. They're just now starting to learn that life does go on and the world doesn't grind to an irreversible halt when "your" candidate loses. You just keep keeping on. You can talk about leaving the country and you can talk about how dumb people must be if they don't agree with your beliefs, but that's not going to do anyone any good.
I wasn't disappointed with the results of the state and local elections. My beef is that everyone concentrates so much on the presidential race and forgets that the people they send to congress and the senate also can make a big difference, as do the people they elect to state offices as well.
There are a lot of things we can't control in life. We can try but it's not always going to go our way. These days, when I'm feeling overwhelmed by all sort of circumstances in my life, I'm just trying to concentrate on controlling myself, my home and my health. I've been sort of back on the WW wagon, tracking points, drinking more water, eating healthier foods, taking walks and waking up early to do yoga and take as much advantage of the shrinking amount of daylight as possible. My house is basically clean. The kitchen is clean. There's food in it too. I try to make the most of the time I spend with the people I love. What else can you do, really? Thanksgiving is coming. Might as well start being thankful for all we have right now.

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