The news is full of talk of the Omicron variant school shootings, Olympic boycotts, a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine, and almost everything else bad you could conjure up.
My kids are both living away from home. There’s a good chance I won’t see either of them until the 21st.
My wife leaves for Kentucky a week before us so I will have six days home alone starting next week.
While it’s nice to make a little money from writing on Medium, it does have the downside of making writing me worry too much about stats over there.
It gets dark very early.
I have hours every day where I don’t talk to or even see another person.
How to combat this?
I turn on the lights on the Christmas tree first thing every morning.
I have Hallmark Christmas movies on in the background in place of the news.
We went to a Christmas tree lighting last week.
I will walk down the street to see Santa come by on the fire truck when they visit our neighborhood this week.
When I am home alone, I will take a drive to see Christmas lights.
I will visit the local Christmas village.
I will find reasons to leave the house.
It would be too easy for me to just wallow in the sadness and the loneliness. I’m doing my best to fight it this year.
The World's Common Tater 
Just go and do something everything day. Read in a coffee shop. Go to a different library. Location changing is good
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I know what you’re talking about. I’m struggling with the horribleness of the world and some personal worries, anxieties, and sadness. This morning I learned that a good friend passed away from breast cancer, dianosed only this spring. I turned the Christmas tree lights on this morning, so glad that I decorated it yesterday to combat other indications of a coming depression. Tis the season, and it’s a toughy this year. I should add that I can easily walk across the breezeway to my sister’s house for human contact, so I shouldn’t complain. Maybe I should look into a Hallmark movie. All the books I’m reading right now are too sad for today.
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I like that you have plan. When you go out you could take a notebook with you and jot down any interesting things you observe. You may want to write about them later.
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I need to be better about the note taking thing
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I think it was a post of LA’s that reminded me to do that.
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Once my tree goes up, the lights never go off until it’s time to take it down again. Something about Christmas and Christmas lights makes me a little less anxious and more at peace. I don’t even watch or listen to the news anymore. Too much gloom and doom and mass hysteria.
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I’ve always been a news junkie. The past few years have changed that.
I love this season because people are generally a little kinder.
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You have an excellent plan there, and so great that everything seasonally festive adds positivity to your time. You’re doing a great job of being responsible for your self-care.
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Ugh try harder to avoid the news, I used to be a news junkie when Trump was in office…even got the NY times for a spell, but the news started to become a combo of vitriol and depression I had to quit for my sanity. I don’t miss it.
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I’m making an effort to limit my exposure
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