difficult day, please send goodness?

[elisem]

 When sadness, grief, anger, and lifelong major depression intersect, some days are unpleasant cactus gardens of spiky despair.

(I'm going to apply some workbench time, which almost always improves almost anything. But being motivated to go from this chair to that one is a lot of work right now.)

If you could remind me of some good thing in the world, or something good or sweet you saw or did, or some memory of us together or hope for being so in the future, it would be a great kindness, if you have the oomph to spare for it.

(Given past experience as a guide, I will get through this, but today everything feels at least temporarily insurmountable and made of despair.)

Tell me something good? Please? If you can?

Comments

[anne]

It's cold, but sunny, and the snow is sticking for the first time in years. We have people who love us.

[yhlee]

I have been learning to play, slowly, my morin khuur Shinjo. Not with the goal of reaching performance standard (I wish!) but because I've missed playing a bowed string instrument, at $600 (incl. international shipping) - not cheap but an order of magnitude more affordable than an intermediate viola, since health issues (back/neck/shoulders) make viola iffy for me anyway; played upright on the knee, a bit like a viol (not viola). I love her. She's a delight. We've been getting to know each other slowly: the technique is interestingly different from viola or even cello due to the construction of the instrument, and I've loved learning to make her sing, little by little. It gives me an ease that I haven't felt for a long time, since I lost my viola in the 2016 floods. I hope you find some kind of ease too.

[wyld_dandelyon]

Back when California first told people to stay home because of Covid, there had been a filk convention planned for that next weekend. Some of our more techie folks did more than mourn--they started the first zoom filk event, which is still happening four times a year and is called The Festival of the Living Rooms. Other zoom filk gatherings followed, many of which are still happening even now that people aren't in lockdown. No matter where someone lives in the world, if they have internet and time free during one of them, they can come to share music, chat (in the chat window or sometimes even in the zoom), and listen. I've gotten to know filkers in England, Europe, Australia, and the coasts who I might have met briefly before. People are also welcome to show up and just listen, or do crafts, as they have always been welcome when there's filking at cons. This is a great joy for me.

[petrea_mitchell]

Monday I went to the zoo and saw a giant furry cat belly (on an Amur tiger).

[el_staplador]

My cat has decided that my toddler is an acceptable source of fuss, and, while I have to supervise their interactions closely to make sure that this does not get out of hand, it's a joyous thing to see.

[redbird]

A few months ago, one of my cats started jumping on the bed to be petted when I went to bed. After I'd gotten used to that, she started telling me that it was time to come to bed already.

She only tells me this when I'm up later than usual, so it's endearing rather than annoying, whether or not I take her suggestion.

[keshwyn]

A few years ago, I went back to my family's cabin for the last time, after we sold it to some cousins because we had all moved too far away to be able to do upkeep anymore. I was feeling sad, because of course while I could still visit, it wasn't going to be mine anymore, and I was sitting on the porch, listening to the quaking aspen leaves and watching the sun through the great big spruce tree next to the house when I saw movement, low down.

Understand, there has been a badger sett under that tree for my whole life, but never had I ever seen any indication that it was anything but abandoned.

But there was an American badger in all her "I will fuck you up if you mess with me!" glory, cleaning out the mouth of the sett and settling in, clearly saying, "New owners, huh? Guess I'd better keep an eye on 'em for you."

I watched her for a good ten minutes before she vanished below ground, and I was so happy to see her.

[anef]

This made me smile.

[sartorias]

There is the possibility of rain here for the first time in 11 months. A very traumatized dog trusted me enough to let me scratch him in all the good places.

[sillylilly_bird]

Ben has taken to sleeping under the covers with me.

[gwynnega]

At the end of December, Stew (Passing Strange) did a gig in Los Angeles for the first time since I think 2019. It was wonderful, and I got to catch up with him and many old friends from the LA music scene.

[rachelmanija]

Oh wow! I love him.

[sine_nomine]

I remember, with great fondness, shuttling you about NYC for bead shopping and such. And, although it was a terrifying reason for which the Cubby Car Service had been engaged to pick up your Juan at the airport, it was wonderful to meet him.

Oh, and the joys you had with food you could eat. Your smile at those moments was infectious.

I am so sorry you are being spikey. I so totally understand. Cheering you on.

[chanter1944]

Here's one or, really, two. The haiku earring party at a previous WisCon where, when presented with the prompt 'how to talk to a tree', I replied with reference to Diane Duane's Young Wizards 'verse on the subject of conversation in nonlinear time. Also the earrings that led me to remember adopted tabby boy shelter kitties, which, I think, endeared me to your assistant - Patricia? Tricia? crud, I've forgotten her name - because cat rescue people seem to find each other. I still have both those earring pairs. :)

[kiya]

I was chatting with another student of my music teacher today and he asked about my Boston Flowers hat and it turns out that some of the people who did Blittle League were people he'd been in an improv group with.

And I had been meaning to mention this to you as a "look at the small world and how pleasant it can be" and you reminded me.

[resolute]

As of today gay marriage is legal in Thailand!

[ursa_cerulean]

My little yarn shop has turned into a place where people can come and be with crafters (we had someone doing bobbin lace at stitch night! I'd never seen it in person before!) and we have middle school kids and people who are well into retirement and all kinds of ages in between crafting together and learning about each other. It feels good to be this place.

[pameladean]

I keep starting to put in things that are good, but too badness-adjacent, I think, to be right at the moment.

Late last night as I toiled up the steps with a load of laundry, well past my bedtime, the perfect half-moon looked in the stairway window at me. It had planets for company.

P.

[pameladean]

Oh! I know! Trans activist Erin Reed has made a list of trans Girl Scouts from whom you can order cookies online. I have ordered some from a mite of a theater kid at heart (she says, and she should know) and am looking for a few more from a different kid.

P.

the freesia will bloom soon

[siriosa]

(in northern california)
last year's tulip and hyacinth bulbs are peeking up in the flowerboxes.
my best friend thinks that everybody is basically good, bc she projects like a mofo. it seems to work for her.
good omens fans are talking each other off the ledge, and offering wisdom (and defiance).
the aclu. planned parenthood.

[ckd]

Fourth Street has dates, which means I will soon have plans. I also hope to be able to include at least a drive by hug for you in said plans.

[mrissa]

My grandmother has had a ceramic elephant I have loved my entire life, and it is now sitting on my library hearth to cheer me for good.

[kaberett]

I have poppy seed sourdough with butter and blackberry jelly. Would share if could, etc.

[madgastronomer]

I am teaching a weaving class at my makerspace on Sunday.

I love my makerspace. It intentionally includes a lot of crafts and supplies -- like fiber and fabric arts (they've had a fiber arts night monthly since before they had a *space*), and Cricut vinyl cutter -- that most makerspaces skip, as well as the usuals, to try to draw a more diverse membership. It works, too!

[rachelmanija]

I have stocked my bookshop with books that are my personal favorites, books with queer teenage protagonists, nonfiction about women being heroic, and many other good things. The local queer and/or goth teenagers seem very happy that it exists. So do a number of small children who like to rampage around the kids' room.

[anef]

Oh that is an excellent thing to do!

[xeger]

It's taken nearly 5 years, but the cat that I trapped along with her (older - 8-10 week) kittens, and described as hissing and panting then -- and who has been incredibly reactive, in a blood extracting way about hands passing above her head/body -- paused, looked at my hand passing above her head/body*, and quite visibly decided it was Okay, and didn't even bother to do more than watch my hand go by.

*not done intentionally, or to provoke - just wasn't paying quite enough attention.

... and was just distracted from posting this by having her distribute herself across my right leg, and demand lengthy and extensive pets, purring deeply the whole while.

[anef]

Patience is a good strategy with cats.

[queenbookwench]

Am late to this but I really enjoyed your contribution of Mari Lwyd poems to Celia's new short, and that reminded me of past good times together as well :)

[rosefox]

I've started lifting weights again, and it feels so good to be strong.