Surviving November
Hit and Miss #217
HELLO! I’m writing to you late, after a nourishing weekend of housework, walking, and friends (new and old alike). I’m leaving October on a high.
With luck, that high will carry me well through November. But it’s a tough month. November is the first month of Vonnegut’s season of “locking” (or Vermont’s “stick season”)—the leaves are gone, but the snow’s not yet here; the days are short and often overcast; and there are no holidays to celebrate (at least, not here).
Nonetheless, I’m resolved to get through November with as good a spirit as I can muster. I’ve put together a “November survival guide”, a list of activities to set myself right when the world knocks me awry.
One of the main enablers is to be decisive. Rather than fretting over what to do, it’s to quickly move to something. Here are just some of those possibilities from my list:
- Go to a local dog park at the end of the workday
- Enjoy a warm drink in a sunlit park, reading poetry (or listening to the late, great Mary Oliver)
- Watch Gilmore Girls and work through the sudoku pile
- Indulge in a midweek movie night (maybe choose one of the feel-good movies from your pandemic movie weekends list)
- Watch an opera
- Go on a super long walk, full of water and trees
- Pick up an old data project
- Read children’s literature
- Call your grandparents—spend time with the long view
- Turn to your list of therapeutic things
- For almost any of these—invite friends to join in!
How do you get through November? Or do you love it? (If so, please tell me why!) Here’s to a hopefully all-good month :) All the best for the week ahead!
Lucas