I'm tired of being tired. It starts far too early, there isn't a lot of relief through the day and it's my fault. I read.

I also listen a lot to CBC radio and some podcasts from US authors and those can be a real energy drain. Recently, one of the sources of early-morning reading gave an explanation for my fatigue. Brené Brown wrote about despair saying it was: "a claustrophobic feeling, an emotion that says, 'Nothing will ever change'. It's different than anger or sadness or grief. Despair is twinged with hopelessness."

Now, that's the feeling that leads to my pulling the covers over my head. Or drinking.

She continues the exploration of despair, however, by saying that "hope is a powerful antidote to despair, and hope is not an emotion  but according to C. R. Snyder,an American psychologist who specialized in positive psychology it is a cognitive-behavioral process. It's about having a goal and a pathway to achieve that goal, a sense of 'I can do this!'

You can turn the maxim of "If there's a will, there's a way" around so that when you have a plan, a way, a simple first few steps, then the will to act will flow in to empower your actions. Here are some of my overwhelms and the first few steps I'm taking.

Trump's victory or Pollievre's polling lead may be ascribed to some of these factors:

influence of right-wing media speaking to

a "grievance culture" of very real economic hardships with 

fake-news narratives and slogans like "axe the tax"

mis/disinformation such as immigrants eating cats

using obscenities in speeches because it's macho

exaggeration and outright lies

I'm not a media mogul with lots of money and control of news and social media platforms, but I do meet people and I can smile and engage in conversations. I'm a shy person by nature (it was someone else wearing the lampshade last party) but I've found that a nod in passing often elicits a response and offers a pause for conversation, and listening is a good start. This is not the blog where I give lectures on verbal communication; you have to pay for that to make it worthwhile.

I bet you remember when someone (your favourite teacher or your mom) told you that conversation involved both talking and listening. My best instruction in that regard came from someone who told me that you can listen a person into being wonderful. It wasn't some manipulative con game of active listening disguised as neuro-linguistic programming, but rather simply an open, honest regard for the words of another. Sometimes the content can be distressing to hear, but very seldom. Listen more.

Reading is also an antidote -NOT about calamities (there's plenty of those) but short essays, humour, memoirs, travelogues from people such as our own Stephen Leacock, Jack Knox, Will Ferguson and other locals. In our apartment, people leave things, mostly books, on a counter in the foyer for others to take. I have found so many wonderful reads on that counter from a veterinarian's memoirs of life in the Cariboo to reflections of an air force veteran's survival training. A fast skim tells me if I'll be engaged or not. You have those little library boxes on the streets around your homes. Use them, knowing that "using" involves taking and giving.

It comes back to Snyder's advice to find a way so that the will can activate. Action, even micro-doses of happy deeds, will give more of a boost than that butter tart I just sneaked or the scotch I want to gulp. I don't want to get gushy and spray a lot of Pollyanna (who was she anyway?) happy dust all over you, but making people glad they met you is a hit. And it occurs more often than we may give it credit for.

I have noticed people on crosswalks raising a hand to thank drivers for stopping. I see drivers acknowledging the other driver who waved them through a turn ahead of them into rush-hour traffic. And I see lots of little kids waving in passing, usually (maybe always) when Beverly is with me.

My partner operates on a fairly simple rule. She believes that a comment in passing is actually a chance to connect with someone so that a nod is an invitation to ask how the day is going, and a simple passerby's query about "How's your day going?" should always be reciprocated by stopping and responding and noticing how aren't the flowers lovely or the sky blue or the wind invigorating or what a grouch my husband is. And if there are little people involved, pack a lunch because we're in for a long conversation.

As Canadians, we are in for a rough few years until our southern neighbours depose their crazy king and play nice with the rest of the world. I'm all for "Buy Canadian" as a first step, but there are other, more serious actions to be taken or consciously refused.

Cheering our hockey team's win is a definite "yes". Booing another nation's national anthem is rude.

Attending to our politics with all of its complexities in Liberal party leader selection, policy positions of MPs and getting involved in the next election for whichever party you support are all as significant as ever. Blithely repeating slogans, no matter who says them, demonstrates more mental laziness than understanding. If I carry signs reading "Max the Tax!" at party rallies, it's because that is what was advised at the Kyoto Accord and the Paris Convention on our climate crisis as an effective means of combatting CO2 polluters.

You probably have your own list of things to do, and I'd love to hear some of them. And thank you for taking that first step in making my world a kinder place by smiling at people you pass on the street or waving at the kiddies. (Down Beverly; down).