Evening Pages: October 9th, 2020
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, I've been locking myself down until I think it's safe to go out again. To alleviate fear and stress, my writer's group has put together a daily "morning pages" get-together on Zoom in order to touch base before starting the day. Here's some of my brief thoughts.
Look at these nuggets!!
Well the President didn't die (which to be clear is a good thing), so I'm glad I'm not a betting man. On the other hand, one of my watermelons literally distintegrated on the floor into a gigantic puddle of sugar water, and my slippers at home are extremely sticky, so I guess that's fate's way of telling me if I go looking for bad news it'll find me first.
In good news this week, today is the 2nd Saloniversary, and we're having a small virtual party in honor of that. We're spending some time writing and the two prompts we can choose from are "How have you changed this past year?" and "What is a memory that will forever make you laugh out loud?"
Hmm, for the latter, I'd say watching "The Office", especially the early scenes. Laughter is the best medicine, and it was really funny to laugh at a dysfunctional office environment rather than internally screaming in one.
I think for the former, I've had to find some source of peace from within. I think I've always relied on external stimuli for how I'm supposed to feel, and that just doesn't work in 2020, but I think I've found that watching TV (especially comedies) is a pretty relaxing way to spend time, and finding ways in order to relax and make things and laugh is really important just over the long term to reduce my cortisol levels. This year's also been weird in terms of time, but I think it's hammered home how the days are long but the years are short. Time feels pretty weird nowadays, but it always goes forward and you only have so much, and that's why it's so important to keep track of where it's going. This year's brought my hourly journal, and morning pages, and learning to make my own popcorn on a stovetop. So you know what? Things aren't that bad.