Planning and Thanks

They say that you can make some things happen by simply ‘willing’ it. With that in mind:

I will not get holiday depression this year.

I will not get holiday depression this year.

I will not get holiday depression this year.

I will not get holiday depression this year.

I will not get holiday depression this year.

I will not get holiday depression this year.

I will not get holiday depression this year.

I will not get holiday depression this year.

Actually, I’m sure I WILL get holiday depression at some point this season and I’m OK with that. By planning in advance for the possibility, I increase the chance of decreasing its impact. Thanksgiving Week gives us an opportunity to consider what we are thankful for in life and that is what I choose to concentrate on for the next six weeks.

My life is filled with crap right now and things I have been trying to make happen are still crawling along like a slug. Crawling, however, does indicate movement so I can add that to the list of things I am thankful for. I am thankful for supportive friends, especially LS, PC and LV … you know who you are. Even though they each live more than 500 miles away from me they are a text or call away and I am thankful for that.

I am thankful for a great job. There is always something new at work, new challenges, new opportunities, new problems. The shear amount of work is crazy at times, but nearly everything I do involves some form of creativity and I get paid well to be creative.

One cause of holiday depression is mismatched expectations. We often long for some part of our youth during the holidays and are sad when we can’t have that. One cure, however, is to celebrate the past while at the same time creating new traditions for the season. My annual holiday road trip is one that has helped me, although it probably won’t happen this year; at least not in the full way I want it to. But I’ll figure out something.

Sometimes just keeping busy can be helpful when trying to navigate the holiday season, so I have a list for later this week, including watching LSU beat Arkansas Friday, shopping in a nearby town on Small Business Saturday, boxing up more stuff for my eventual move to a new address, catching a movie or two … and my favorite depression killer: photography.

Another thing I’m thankful for … you. Thank you for visiting this blog, even if I don’t know you.