Day 19, December 22, 7:12 a.m.

Are there any less beautiful words in the English language than “wintry mix?” I think not. It also happens to be one of the foulest weather situations to wake up to. My wake up call this morning came via a certain Christmas-addled 8-year old bursting into our room to announce that school was opening on a 2 hour delay. Given the situation and the weather and the lack of ambient light, I was extremely loathe to get up and go outside. So I lounged for a minute. It felt luxurious.

I was tempted to berate myself for this lapse, but just yesterday my therapist said something of extreme importance to me. And I applied it to my life immediately. We were talking about how humans are the only animals on the planet capable of “meaning making.” I was struggling with the concept when she asked if I was familiar with squirrels. Duh, of course I’m familiar with squirrels, in fact there’s one scurrying around in our attic as I type this! So then she asked me if I had ever seen a squirrel beat itself up for making a mistake. “No, you don’t see that. You never see a squirrel stop and drop its head into its paws and groan ‘You’re such a f*cking idiot for forgetting that nut!’”

And so this morning I didn’t beat myself up for setting out a few minutes late. Instead I congratulated myself for doing it at all. #MeetingMorning