Am I Up for This?

This is officially day #2 of my "writing every day" challenge to myself. I spent a greater part of the morning working on my Google photos sync app on my computer. I keep getting error messages telling me the photo uploader Google app is going away soon and I need to get the sync and drive or vice versa. I really can't keep the two names straight. However, after a good bit of piddling around, I think I figured it out and got rid of the obsolete app and kept the current one.

One of the reasons that I wanted to get this straight is that I want to be able to access my Google Photos. That's where all of my downloads eventually go, and then my iPhone cleans itself up and doesn't store too many photos... at least, that's what I think I'm doing.

I wondered this morning if I was going to be able to keep up with writing. Haha! It's day 2... surely I can complete day 2, right? I did procrastinate. That's what all of the Google photo app distraction was about. However, here I am... writing. Yay!

It's rainy again today. We've had day after day after day of rain. It's February, and we've had temps everywhere from 79 degrees to 28. When it rains, it's never cold enough to turn to snow. When it's cold, the rain clouds move off and the sun comes out. My body is pretty confused. I think everyone's is, really. In the North, they're having unprecedented cold and snow. I don't mind a rainy day or two. I love to see snow fall...a rarity in the South these days. Sunshine, whether it's freezing or warm, always helps my mental attitude.

Winter almost inevitably brings on SAD for me. Seasonal Affective Disorder is a challenge. Too many days without sunshine, and I definitely feel the ill effects of mood swings, depression, lack of motivation, etc. We had lots of rain last week, and that's when we had unreasonably warm winter temps in the mid-70's and HUMID!

On Friday, though, the clouds broke, the temps dropped to freezing and below...HOWEVER, the sun came out! I had coffee with a friend and lunch with a friend. People were buzzing around everywhere. You could feel the positive energy generated by Vitamin D... pretty crazy, but true.

Truth be told, I'd really rather not have to deal with SAD. It's just another condition stacked up on many others that I have... seemingly more and more as I grow older and approach 50! Such is life, though. Thing is, I get to decide how to handle it.

However, that doesn't always make it easy to handle. I don't like to complain, but I do suffer. I may have a myriad of "issues", and I don't like to be negative. Sometimes, though, I just really have to express myself to an empathetic, or at least sympathetic, ear. I need to share without judgement. I need to talk to someone, not for advice, but for the sake of speaking. I need a friend to listen...attentively. Don't we all want that?

Whether I'm sharing a hurt, a physical or mental need, a story from the day, a happy experience...whatever it is...I want someone to listen--someone who isn't distracted.

Distraction is a whole other topic for another day or maybe later today. Somehow I'll try to weave the importance of presence into the debilitating state of our constant distractions... what's happening, my thoughts on "why" and hopefully some wisdom around coming around to the present. It's important. Actually, I believe it's critical to living a life well-lived.