Ahh, it’s November 21, 2018. We’ll continue to lose daylight for another month. It won’t be this light again until January 21, 2018. What gives? I am being inconvenienced. I can’t adhere to my normal routine, which is to get out and play with the animals until the early afternoon.

I know, I know, I am told those who have regular jobs; the 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. crew don’t get to see their animals during the weekdays. That is unless they are paying for heated barns with lighting or have motion detectors. Well, if they have these things it is because they are working to pay for them. I instead get a few hours of daylight – my problem is that I am not

doing a good job of managing the time that I have available.

I am wondering if all the speculating I have been doing about the lack of light is related to having Seasonal Affective Disorder. The acronym is SAD. The strangest thing of all is that I am not sad. I would not say that these days I’m jumping for joy, but I am jumping, or in strength training class, learning to jump. What I’m doing is called a depth drop. I hop off a wooden box, this after raising my arms and sticking a foot off the box edge. I come down in a crouch, with my arms behind me. Way fun.

There are no windows in the gym, and so I am cognizant of the fact that I am burning daylight. I do not know how those who work in this basement-like area are able to deal. It could be that working on being physically fit stimulates endorphins that are suppressed when one is working in an area devoid of light.

No, I am not sad. This morning I got a call from my Centered Riding buddy Mary Trafford, in Quebec – she was calling because she just wanted to chat. Most who know me know that I don’t chat on the phone. Mary doesn’t know me all that well. But I rose to the occasion because I like Mary a great deal and had not heard from her for some time.

Mary sounded down – her 100 year old father is doing well but is suffering from short term memory loss. And a neighbor is going to have to have heart surgery. And Mary’s partner Sue is having knee problems and might need knee replacement surgery. And it’s winter in Quebec, like here, dark and cold.

I realized at the end of my conversation that all my news was good – I told her the horses are doing well and that my alignment is improving. I also talked about what I’ve been reading and about my NYC trip. And I talked about my ongoing emergency disaster preparedness training.

I didn’t talk about being depressed nor did I go on and on and on about how darkness is dragging me down.

I think that the problem is actually (as I said above) related to time management – I need my mornings to get the writing done. And after, I don’t have the time to work with the animals. The solution, of course, is to simply accept the fact that this is the way it is and this is not going to change. Soon enough, the light will return and I will readily embrace it.

Yesterday I told Pete that if I could be anything, that I’d want to be the sun. I should imagine that I am the sun. A great idea – being the sole source of all planetary life.

Next; 326. 11/22/18: Thank You and Pass the Cheese Whiz