Today’s not off to a great start, so I skip my morning pages and try something different.
Sleep paralysis sucks. I was still groggy and irritable by the time I flip on the light at my desk. Thankfully, it doesn’t happen as frequently as it once did, but when it makes an appearance it really is just awful.
I hoped the shower would help, but it didn’t. Reading felt like that moment when shifting gears on your bike causes the chain to jump; where you have a chance to save it before it falls off, but only if you back-pedal patiently and down-shift. I’d fought my way through entire pages only to realize I needed to go back and re-read them again. My inbox gifted me a particularly unwanted email that only soured my mood further.
So I cave and make some coffee.
Then, on my way to my desk, I stop mid-stride. I’m staring at the cracked-open journal by the lamp, but I’ve got the urge to sit at my typewriter instead. Since I’ve been wanting to start writing letters, it occurs to me that maybe I’d like to do that for a minute this morning. I’m not even sure who I might write to yet, but I had recently messed around and printed some letterhead... and then I went and left it right next to my typewriter so I’d be more inclined to follow through with a surge of letter-writing inspiration, should it strike.
And so it had.
So, on this no good, very bad start to my day, I decided to write a letter of gratitude to someone extremely deserving.
And it helped.
Our Daily MAP Year Prompt
242/365
Do you find ways to steer yourself out of bad moods or let them drive for a while?
onward.
For more on this daily column and The MAP Year Project, read the backstory.
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