Mood Enhancers

Let's say a colleague writes you a nasty email, complete with ugly, unjustified insinuations about your incompetence, and cc's your boss...

Or your body, for reasons you cannot explain, has felt so bone-numbingly tired for the past week that you can only liken yourself to a shapeless towel that's been wrung out by an old-fashioned mangle and left in a heap...

Or your three-year-old decides that rather than play along with the "It's Bedtime Now" game of an evening, she would rather train for the Shrieking Olympics in the High-Decibel Marathon event (which she will certainly win, hands down)...

Or your sump pump stops working, your basement floods with nearly two inches of water, and your dehumidifier chooses that particular week to say Sayonara and jet off to whatever constitutes "greener pastures" for a short, dull, rectangular appliance...

Or your students just will keep writing papers that you have to grade in a hurry and yet with good intentions and constructive feedback (papers which you have assigned, obviously, and for whose presence on your desk you have absolutely no one to blame but yourself)...

Or you have something else going on that is frustrating, annoying, exasperating, irritating, or otherwise malevolent...

...may I suggest the following remedies?

Take your pristine, white, never seen the outside of the gym due to the 297-month-long winter you've just lived through, OUTSIDE on a sunny day for a little jaunt.


Admire the view.


Snuggle with the dog on a sunny stoop after a lilting walk.


Imagine the fairies who would relish drinking these jewel-sized droplets of dew from such perfect little cups.


Remember that the world is so much bigger and brighter than petty people or the momentary inconvenience of faulty electronics, and that even gold-medal winners age out of perfection in their sports.

Or at least have their "off" days where the sport in question is furthest from their minds.