Anne here, and today, for some reason, I woke this morning feeling a bit gloom-and-doom-y. You know how it happens — news headlines come at you from all directions and you start despairing at the state of the world. Mass shootings, dreadful laws, inept, lazy or corrupt governments, Covid deaths, poverty, racism, injustice, global warming and people's refusal to face it, and . . . I could could go on. But I won't.
The media is so eager to throw disaster and ghastliness at us, and it's pretty easy to sink into negative thinking, but though it can creep around the edge of my consciousness, I'm determined not to let it in. Some days you really have to work at achieving some balance to the gloom and doom. Today was one of those days for me.
So what did I do to counteract the gloom and doom? The first thing was to take the dog out for a good walk. It was a cold and showery day but luckily we hit a lovely patch of sunshine.
Dogs are great for mental health — they're funny and silly and affectionate and they live absolutely in the moment, and find joy in the smallest things, which is a great life lesson. And I am lucky in that I have some lovely areas where I can walk her.
We started off walking on a narrow dirt track beside a creek, and she loved that, diving in here and there to investigate all sorts of interesting smells. But then the little path got increasingly muddy and when everything was squishing wetly beneath my feet, I decided we'd head for higher ground and walk on the (gasp) actual path. Yes, poor spirited of me, I know and not nearly as interesting, but strangely I prefer my feet dry. I had to make her sit for this photo, because otherwise she'd continue darting around gleefully — and heading back to muddy joy.