Any inspiring suggestions for a person who is out of sorts, not feeling too wonderful ....

You can fall a long way in sunlight
You can fall a long way in the rain
The ones who don't take the old white horse
take the morning trrain.

- David Hass, Euolgy for My Brother

Actually, if I feel like that, I just go with it until it's over. It's such a rarity that I accept it when it happens - really, can't remember the last time I felt like that. If it went on too long, whatever that means (maybe to a point where it annoyed me?), then I'd have to do something - I think reading a comedy or playing peppy, happy music, or talking to a good friend would get me out of it.

.....and then there can't be a rainbow without the rain, can it?
Life is always a walk down the valley and up the mountain - one cannot enjoy
the mountain peak unless you've climbed it all the way up from the valley
yourself.

MsOlga, I was thinking about you this morning as I listened and watched this video of one of my favorite Michael Franks tunes. I hope you get a chance to go barefoot on the beach or dig your toes into some good garden soil before the winter sets in down under.

when I'm feeling a little sad and blue, I just grab a rifle out of my gun rack and drive the 275 miles down to the Mexico border where I sit on OUR side of the river and take pot shots at anyone on the other side (Mexico) I do this just to keep those aliens reminded that OUR side of the river is America and we are law abiding citizens willing to shoot and kill anyone who thinks they can break OUR laws. This keeps me up on my gun skills, gets me some sun and it's not a bad drive. On my way home I usually stop in Hatch New Mexico for a nice dinner with peppers picked by undocumented Mexican workers.

Will u agree that those peppers have a different flavor
than the peppers picked by the documented ones?

<snort>!

I hardly ever outright disagree with you, butryfly, but don't give me a machine when I could be close to even a small waterfall., and even that may drive me bats. Well, that's me, not to speak for anyone else. Plus, one of my lifetime most sleepless nights was right smack on ocean at Malibu.

I haven't answered since I've been depressed for years, primarily about money and the swamp or the petroglyphs at the end of none. Last thing I'd do is spend money on a gym (sorry, opinion).

I'll go with the people who mention art, but then, you are all advising art to an artist. Maybe a different art, msolga - have you ever played with writing poetry?
Why not get involved with our a2k haiku thread. The thread is banal banal banal and then jumps to interesting, sometimes wise, sometimes very layered.

Roberta is giving me interest in art therapy. Now there's something I should do myself, I wish I could be in the room with Roberta. And then I'm sorry I didn't know to go into that. However, I think in your teaching life you have done thousands of hours of art therapy, so who am I telling this?

So, finally, I'll just say walk and look. It's the looking that bears fruit.

I could go for that if I had a rifle. I don't, but when I'm really feeling down, I get out the ant powder. Cheaper, and the satisfaction is probably about the same.

You are going to have to find another way to lift your sagging spirits when you're feeling sad & blue, Bob!

This will not do!!!!

(Thanks for a good snort & my best laugh of the day! You are in good form! )

Im up very early this AM because Im feeling a bit edgy about a little research project that has a short deadline and Im not nearly as far along as Id like. I need to get myself kicked into a higher gear and this has me somewhat irked and a little annoyed at my obvious inertia . So, Im out of sorts too, just not depressed YET.

I just sprang widewake and Im here at my desk making up "to do" lists and personnel assignments, and Ive found that everything is sequential, I dont have one damn task that can be done simultaneously with others. Grrr.

On a personal note (while still wading through the grey sludge <sigh>), I had a very nice time in a class I was covering for an absent (social studies) teacher this morning ...

They were in the process of preparing short oral presentations on the subject of "protest movements", whatever their choice of subject.

I informed the class that I had "quite some interest" in this area of their studies & thought I might be of some use in their research activities, if they needed help. "Just ask", I said, "and if I can help I'd be more than happy to".

Well ... the civil rights movement in the USA, the Vietnam war, the Iraq invasion, the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, etc, etc, etc .... talk about subjects I knew lots about & were close to my heart!

The nicest moment (for me) was when a group of (normally quite disengaged, somewhat troublesome boys <trust me!> ) -Muslim, recent refugees from various part of Africa, genuinely wanted to know more about Malcolm X & what he stood for . It was clear this was very important to them.

Well, I was able to tell them what they wanted to know. And further more, they were absolutely riveted with what I had to say!

"Enjoy this moment, msolga" I said to myself ... "This might be the one & only moment you have such rapt attention from this particular group students."

So you see, there are times when being rather old, yet connected to what was going on in the times you've live through, can be very, very useful!

Hell, I was out cutting the grass the day that the meteorite came and killed all the dinosaurs, so Im much olsder than you.

Perhaps, farmer, we are round about the same, in years around the sun.

But god, do we pack a punch!

I never feel old, really, in the teaching situation I'm in, except when I'm depressed.

This was a lovely moment with those troublesome boys, I can tell you!

And then I had to explain pacifism to another group! And what's more, they wanted to know about my own position.

Now how can you possibly remain jaded & disconnected when this sort of thing is required of you? Impossible.

Just saw your slightly earlier post, farmer. Somehow missed it before.:



Can I just say (in sympathy) that I know, I know, I know ....

Deadlines are a curse! I hate 'em!

I've taken to wondering if procrastinators (not that you necessarily are one, of course! ) should just accept their affliction as a fact of life. And go with the flow.

I mean, the work always gets done (at the very last minute), right?

And the work is always up to scratch, right?

So, why do we torture ourselves in the meantime? Whatever usually kick starts the necessary activity to get the job done will happen. As always. Have faith.

This is not much help, is it? But it will get done, trust me!

So don't go getting depressed about it, OK? (Ha, I should talk!)

Seriously, best of luck with it.

Have you found that A2K is particularly fascinating at times like this?

Have you tried blowing up a mountain? I heard it works wonders by turning any lingering depression into aggression.

Sometimes (more often than not) your replies crack me up. This one certainly did the trick. Now I have to clean my monitor display of snarfed-up coffee. Nice work!

Jeeez, back then, my ears were still ringing from the Big Bang !





David

I think we have a winner.

As a newspaper reporter back in the 80s and 90s I would often get rather nervous when returning home after an interview or attending a political meeting. My dream was to freelance, but there I was feeling the worse procrastinator most of the time.. You know, the notes are growing cold, should I sit right down and write that story or get something done around the house - Ride the horse, clean the barn, water the flowers. Sometimes it was just the fear that I would procrastinate.

I found a way to get a myriad of things done, no thought of procrastination. There was Monday thru Wednesday to get the interviewing done, the photos taken, the meetings attended - all meetings were held on Mon. & Tues. evenings so I had all day to interview. I would type up all notes (very bad combination of shortened English and old fashioned shorthand (that's how ancient I am, and you can't really write from shorthand), transcribe recorded notes) make those second calls for add'l questions - immediately on returning home. In this way I felt FREE of stress and anxiety, just stuck them in a drawer.

This was my plan: On Wednesday I'd hop in bed with, say, a smidgen of worry, then get up around 3:00 a.m., write all the stories (peace and quite). I was usually done by 5 a.m. (deadline was Thursday noon. I had until the next Monday to do all the great things around our without that constant fear I'd procrastinate.

Took one of those writing-with-the-right-right-of-the-brain classes and the instructor suggested our creative juices are flowing most around 3 a.m. I think that's true, was for me. Have to say, though, I miss those deadlines.
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Msolga, so happy for you. Good for you, you're old enough to face those questions. Sometimes life does surprise us. That's like one of those Mitch Albom books!