tricks for the hard times

I don't know if it is the waning moon, or the menstruation, or hardships both personal and general. But there have been some hard times lately. And because I know that I am not the only one, I offer some of my tricks for snapping out of it...

1) MAKE SOMETHING. A skirt, a basket, a cup of tea, a small garden, a sweater, a painting, a card, a poem, a batch of pumpkin bread. Creation heals.

2) Ring a bell. Or pound on a drum. Or play the guitar. Repeat.

3) Put on the punk rock music and kick and punch at the mirror until you sweat.

4) Run up the nearest mountain. (Optional: roll back down)

5) Find an old, classic poem (Keats, Browning, Shelley, Wordsworth, Tennyson are good bets) and read it out loud to yourself. Outdoors is good. Roll your r's.

6) Breathe deeply through the soles of the feet and up through the top of the head. Again, outdoors is good: remind yourself that air inspires, sun warms, earth gives, water cleanses.

7) Put on an irresistible song and DANCE! (Marco Polo by Loreenna McKennitt, plus a good bellydancing scarf, has never failed to yank me over to the bright side. No, that was just my font color trick, sorry)

8) Tickle a baby.

9) Take a bath. outdoors is good.

10) Find something scented growing outdoors--rosemary, mexican marigold, geranium, lavendar, mint, sage, artemesia--rub the leaves between your fingers, and breathe deeply in. If you are lucky enough to have rose geranium within walking distance, rub the scent on your temples and life will be enchanting again.

11) Take a nap.

12) Read a chapter or two of a young adult fantasy book or a raunchy novel.

13) Write three pages in your journal.

14) Go somewhere you've never been before---even just three blocks away there may be a store you've never entered or a park you've never sat in.

15) Do something nice for someone else. This one is foolproof.

Lately I have been noticing that we all seem to require something to look forward to. It's an endearing human trait. I've been debating setting up celebrations for all of the esbats on the wheel of the year, with different themes for each: cocktail dresses, high tea, live music, hidden places, dessert potluck...

But for now, I'm off to punch at the mirror.