The Most Depressing Day of the Year

Monday was kind of a lousy day around the office. I woke up with a headache that wouldn't go away, and I wasn't the only one - most everyone I talked to seemed to be suffering from a general achiness, dizziness, and just feeling out of sorts. Nothing particularly horrible happened, but the weight of everyday tasks was heavy on the shoulders of everyone around.

Then I heard something interesting.....a psychologist in Wales, Cliff Arnall, had apparently labeled Monday, January 22nd as "Blue Monday" - the most depressing day of the year. There are several factors in his calculation: lousy weather, holiday debt, failed new years' resolutions, etc. (You can hear more about it on NPR's website: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6939432&ft=1&f=1001)

I was struck by the truth of this calculation - not only because I'd experienced it myself, but because there seemed to be so much common sense behind it. How does anyone get through this time of year?

But then it occurred to me......someone, somewhere was having not just a good day, but the best day of their life. Maybe their first child was just born when they thought they couldn't conceive. Maybe they won the local lottery. Maybe they got engaged, or met their true love, or committed their life to Christ. Come to think of it, I would bet that within the vast population of the world, a LOT of people were probably having a wonderful day.

Arnall also mentioned in his interview that Friday, June 22nd is the happiest day of the year. This made perfect sense to me, especially because it's only two days after my birthday. Odds are good that I will have a great day! But again, there will probably be people who lose their job (it's a Friday, after all), discover a cheating spouse, figure out they don't have enough left in their checking account to buy groceries......any number of devastating events.

It's certainly interesting and possibly useful to know that there are external factors that can combine to wreak havoc on our spirit. But they're not necessarily tied to a date on the calendar. I love the lyrics of the Sunscreen Song (actually written by Mary Schmich of the Chicago Tribune):

Don’t worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.

Or, to put it another way....

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.
Each day has enough trouble of its own. -Matthew 6:34

Life is definitely full of trouble, but it is also filled with many wonderful things, too. Monday wasn't all bad this week - I had a great study with some ladies that evening about Anger, and got to visit with friends and snuggle up with my hubby that night. And you know what? On Tuesday morning, my headache was gone, and I got to experience the most wonderful sunrise.

So even if you really are in the midst of a dark time, the great news is that there is always something good coming around the corner - even if you have to wait until June 22nd to experience a brighter day.

My First Entry

A blank text box. A narrow cursor blinks tauntingly at me. How on earth does one begin their first blog entry....?

I have started this blog as part of a weekly commitment to spend an hour a week writing. This is part of a "Team Accountability Challenge" which I helped to initiate, and this is one of the disciplines to which I have committed. Perhaps I should BE committed, but I suppose if that's true then I am more than qualified to have my own blog on the "Wonderful World of the Wide Web." When I conceived of this discipline, I would have been content to just capture some thoughts in a Word document, save them in my "Users" file for a while, and then eventually re-read and delete these documents in a fit of embarrassment. But Lynne, my supervisor, had a different idea.....she suggested I start a blog, to document my weekly musings and even allow other people to READ what I'm writing. No pressure.

I have no idea at this point how many people will read this drivel, or if it will develop over time from drivel to something worth reading. That's my secret hope, anyway.

Hey, if you type something onto a blog and call it "secret", it no longer is....is it?

It's very dark outside right now, and quiet here in the office. I decided that I'll be more disciplined (there's that word again) about getting this done if I slot time for it at the START of my day, knowing how easily I can get distracted in the post-4:30pm world. So, I suppose this is some sort of a disclaimer.....I am writing this VERY early in the morning, and I am NOT a morning person by nature. But I think it could be a positive thing that my mind is perhaps a little more loosely collected in the morning hours, because I'm less likely to self-edit and more likely to let the words flow - either to my benefit, or to your detriment.

I do love words. Steve and I have been engaging in games of Boggle lately - more like tournaments, really - because of another discipline to which I have committed: no TV on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. With the absence of mindless entertainment, I have found mind-stimulating entertainment to be a shockingly wonderful substitute. It's very satisfying to me to find unusual and difficult words embedded in the Boggle cubes.......words like "quitted" or "taper" or "taunt." We play with some pretty strict house rules - 4-letter minimum, no adding an "s" to make a word plural, no proper nouns or foreign words, etc. We end up having some pretty heated discussions about whether a word qualifies as foreign, or whether it is used commonly enough in English to count. We always have to keep a dictionary handy when we play, because Steve is forever using words from his biology classes that I don't believe exist, and I am forever using Biblical words or words from Jane Austen novels that HE doesn't believe exist. Words like "pram," "thou," "quid," or "anon." Each of us inevitably has at least one moment during the game where we throw open the dictionary, bent on proving the other has just made up a word, and find ourselves scowling at that very word on the page. We usually read the definition with a sarcastic tone - as if to say, "You didn't really know that was a word....it's just some obscure thing and you got lucky that it actually qualifies to be in the dictionary - and what kind of stupid dictionary is this anyway?" - sigh heavily, and reluctantly surrender the point.

It's amazing how passionate we both can be about the words that we know. Of course, it's quite satisfying when I see a "made-up science word" that he is forever using on me, and he doesn't. A little in-your-face Boggle taunting is sure to follow.

Yes, I do enjoy words. So it's my hope that I will also enjoy stringing them together in some sort of cognitive fashion here in this blog.

Here goes!