”The methods of madness, the pathos, the sadness. God help you all, the insane and the wise”

I think November is the hardest month out of the year.

Sandy Denny nails it in her song Late November:

"The methods of madness, the pathos, the sadness. God help you all, the insane and the wise."

It's like November is the Time Out month.

I hold it all together the rest of the months and then

*SNAP*

November happens.

And I'm tired.

I'm tired of all the hate.

I'm tired of all the political madness.

I'm tired of trying to please everybody and pleasing nobody.

I'm tired of working so hard and getting absolutely nowhere.

I go to bed exhausted.

I wake up exhausted.

The world is crazy and draining.

It is full of madness.

Too many Pathos.

Too much Sadness.

Even November is like

"ENOUGH!"

Daylight is shorter, the days grow colder, the skies turn grayer it's as though the World shuts off.

November hits and it's time to take a knee,

Sit out for a moment,

Breathe.

I look at November as a month of reflection.

Did I do my best throughout the year?

Could I have helped more people?

Could I have been a nicer person?

Could I have taught my children differently - better?

Could I have worked harder on my yearly goals?

There is always only one answer, and it is always the same.

YES.

And that depresses me.

Drives me insane.

Makes me feel worthless.

Like I don't try hard enough.

The last couple of years, I've decided I didn't like this way of feeling.

I wanted to get out of the slump of November Sadness.

I had to come up with a way to distract me from falling into this insane madness.

So as the days grow colder, the sunlight hours shorter, as I move through the month in a grayscale stupor I look for simple reasons to be thankful.

I believe that when I feel as though the daily grind is closing in, when the madness of the world comes crushing down, when November feels cold and dark if I look for reasons to be thankful the beauty of the world shines through the cracks.

The more I find to be thankful for, the brighter the days become.

I'm not saying that it's easy.

Or that I'm a super happy cheery person everyday because let's face it, I can be pretty disconsolate.

But when I'm looking for the good, I don't have as much time for all the crazy sadness.

There is Beauty All Around

Even in November

If you take the time to look for it.