Does a day ever feel doomed to you? You wake up heavy, sludge through the tasks, can’t seem to get any work done and top it off by dropping your bike key into a canal. Oh wait, maybe I am just talking about myself..sometimes it feels like there is an atmosphere clinging to you, one not easily shrugged off. No amount of coffee can assuage it. No number of pep talks can color it a brighter shade. And what do you do?

Personally, I always feel like the only thing that will cure my “stuckness” is a new day. I have to start fresh. I have to let whatever is happening in the big, wide universe and going through me work itself out and come back at it all with new eyes. An old co-worker once told me that where she grew up, on the island of St.Thomas, they viewed hurricanes as a great purging of the oceans. The waters were too gunked up with trash or whatever it may be and they needed to get it out of their system. It was just nature running its course. I’m paraphrasing here, but that idea and image always stuck with me. That sometimes a violent awakening is needed in order to return to calm and clear waters.

These images and quotes from others are the only things that can anchor me during days like this. I find myself reading link after link of articles on everything from the life and death of a world traveler to how much truth is too much. These words, ponderings and stories are the life rings that I grasp for, the things that buoy my spirit and keep me from hurtling inward.

While it may not always be a violent awakening that returns you to equilibrium, there is something to be said for a fresh start. How do you cope on one of those days, what keeps you lifted and moving?