Some days a girl just doesn’t want to get out of bed. That was me Thursday and Friday and Saturday and Sunday. Luckily it’s Monday and the world seems a bit more bearable.
I am a big believer in doing acts of kindness to get myself out of a funk, so I dug deep in my grey wallet and my grey attitude and tried to think about what would make other people happy.
By mid-afternoon, I just wanted to crawl into bed. The smile was too difficult to maintain.
Then Saturday evening I ran into a guy at the grocery store. I was surprised to see him there because I know him from his other job across town. “You work here?” I said, blurting out the obvious. “Yep. How are you doing tonight?” he answered.
I think my response was something like, “Meh.”
He smiled and said, “Me too. This is a tricky time of year for me.”
We went on to talk for a moment about Seasonal Affective Disorder and how crappy it can make us feel.
Neither one of us offered the other any suggestions because we didn’t have any. We just stood there and acknowledged that we weren’t alone.
I walked out of the grocery store feeling lighter. I don’t want anyone to feel the way I feel when I get down in the dumps like that, but it did help to know others fight this battle too. Almost like safety in numbers.
Unfortunately, I woke up Sunday morning feeling yuckier than ever. I watched a Hallmark movie and then went back to bed. My sweet husband agreed to go for a one mile run with me which was enough to get my body moving for the rest of the day.
It wasn’t until I had the chance to talk to a teenage girl after bible study last night that I finally felt the funk really flee (man that’s a lot of Fs).
She told me how this time of year makes her feel and then she mentioned the blue dot. “What’s the blue dot?” I was intrigued. “Well, when everything in life feels sort of dark, there’s always that blue dot, so I just try to focus on that.”
After some more discussion, I learned the blue dot is hope. Sometimes it’s big and sometimes it’s very little, but it’s there.
What an interesting shift in perspective.
Maybe your world is feeling a little grey right now. Maybe it’s downright black. I just want you to know that you’re not alone. Look for the little blue dot. It can be our reminder that we’re in this together — and that Hope will see us through.
