First Week

Here we are, one week into the new year.  I can't say the year is off to a happy start, or a positive one, but we've still got 51 left to make it happen.

• My 30-Day Yoga Challenge has been brutal.  Seriously.  I'm not a novice, I practice 5 days a week, but I'm realizing that having weekends off was a very good thing!  It allowed me to catch my breath, chill for a few days to regroup, then hit Monday fresh and ready to go.  Day after day with no break is starting to wear me down a bit.  I'm going to keep slogging along here, though three more continuous weeks seems like torture right now.  Too stubborn to quit, but man, it's tempting.

• The Middle East is enraged again, thanks to the total incompetency of the wanna-be Emperor of America.  Arbitrarily, no contact with Congress--and clearly a ploy to distract from impeachment--he stirs the pot, inciting a country that doesn't need help or an excuse to start yet another terrorist holy war.  I'm at a loss to understand how this person can continue as the leader of my country when he is so obviously unfit for the position.  And yet his minions constantly harp on his greatness.  The Lunatic and his Fringe... Sounds like the name of a has-been rock group.  I wish.

• The news from Australia gets worse by the day.  This morning I was reading that they estimate over half a billion animals/creatures have perished.  The entire landscape of wildlife on the continent has been altered forever.  My heart just breaks thinking about it.  I can't help but wonder when the climate ostriches are going to get their heads out of...the sand before it's too late, for all of us.

• On a cheerier note: Rather than toss my Christmas poinsettia this year, I set it on the front porch where it looks better than it did inside. Every time I go out the front door now, it makes me smile and gives me just a wee hint of the Spring flowers to come.

It's a perfect rainy afternoon today and I have a brand new book to start, so I'm off to a place called Fogg Lake, somewhere in the Pacific NW.  Since that's where I live (not the mythical lake, but the NW), I'm looking forward to a nice bit of escapism.  Kettle is boiling, tea awaits.  I'll be back next week, same time, same channel, hopefully with a bit more joy.