What’s up with 2020?

Watch the sunrise at least once a year, put a lot of marshmallows in your hot chocolate, lie on your back and look at the stars, never buy a coffee table you can’t put your feet on, never pass up a chance to jump on a trampoline, don’t overlook life’s small joys while searching for the big ones. ~ H. Jackson Brown Jr.

The first year of the new decade has seemingly been a rough one for everyone.  I’m seeing a lot of posts of on social media, particularly near the end of January, that were expressing how long the month seemed.  The year has definitely been full of reasons for people to be stressed.  It started with massive wildfires in Australia (that are still burning), an impeachment trial in the United States and a coronavirus epidemic in China.  All of this, along with the normal stresses of life seem to have people on edge.

I have to admit it’s been a tough start to the year for me as well.  I’m struggling with blood sugar regulation and today have pretty much had to give in to the idea that I’ll have to go on medication.  I’m determined for that to be a temporary situation, but when you have a condition and basically ignore it for a year while traveling, well, there are consequences to every decision.  Of course as someone whose primary responsibility at work is managing people, tensed up people make for difficult days at work.  Honestly, Friday was the first day in two weeks that people didn’t have my blood pressure up.

So it’s been a tough start, what can you do?

Well the first thing you always have to remember when things aren’t going well, is that the situation is almost always temporary.  So take a deep breath, relax, things absolutely will get better.  Next, when things are going bad try and find positive things to focus on.  For me right now, I’m trying to work up to running a 5K, but I have bad knees and I’m struggling with some knee pain.  I could focus on that negative, but instead it’s better to look at the fact that since I started training my resting heart rate has dropped 3 beats per minute.

Finally, and this is really important, have a little fun, do things that make you feel better.  So I’m actively involved in doing that for myself.  This week I bought a couple of small things for my upcoming trip to New Orleans for Mardi Gras.  I finally found the dates and space to book a trip to Las Vegas I’ve been trying to put together for a couple of months now.   One of the biggest disappointments I had at the beginning of this year was to find out that 13 months in advance wasn’t enough lead time to book my trip to Antarctica, a visit to my sixth continent, then my fall back, hiking in Tasmania in April wasn’t possible because of work commitments.  So my big news is that I’ve worked out a trip to Australia (Sydney and Tasmania) in November to hike the Overland Track.  I have tentative approval, just waiting for the president to sign off.  All of this has made this nomad a little more at ease.  I’m truly like a cat on a hot tin roof when I don’t have a trip planned and once I finally book Australia I’ll be more at peace.

Don’t forget of course to do the little things as well my friends.  I love movies and tonight I’m going to head out to see JoJo Rabbit, I have plans next weekend to go to the track, then I head for NOLA the following weekend.  So I think that 2020 is going to start improve my friends, so stay positive, smile even if you shouldn’t and have a happy day my friends. ~ Rev Kane