Raise your hand if you love all four seasons. Now, raise your hand if you, like me, are losing sense of what a season is anymore. As climate change nips at the heels of expectation, turning seasons upside down with fires, floods, smoke, and heat, I can be challenged while navigating the changes.
Inability to go outside is one of the most significant dopamine suppressors for me. To assuage feelings of despondency that accompany this kind of mood obstruction, I’ve begun to practice emotional curiosity. When the smoke rolls in and I’m quarantined to the hum of my air purifiers and air conditioner or when a heavy rain with hail interrupts intentions for a morning hike, I ask, “What am I suddenly free to explore?”
If I need to move but can’t focus, I’ll engage in an impromptu yoga dance session, squatting, hopping, and wringing out to aural verse and rhythms. If I’m feeling more molasses-like, I’ll step into a Bukowski or Rumi poem (oh, the moods are fickle) or I’ll pull out a book or a trusty DVD (yup, I rock those, too) and dive into someone else’s world for a while. The idea is to reset intention and take advantage of opportunities that reframe situations. What do you do?
How do you reset expectations?
We’re seeking essays that explore a specific incident, circumstance, or even a long-held hope that didn’t align with reality. Tell us about a moment when what you wanted, desired, or expected failed to come to fruition. Then share how you turned it around. What thoughts, practices, perspectives, or actions helped you assimilate the experience, move through the disappointment, and even discover something meaningful, surprising, or joyful in the unexpected turn?
Instructions
Submit a 500-word essay in a Microsoft Word document, and include the author’s first and last name, email address, phone number, physical address, and total word count in the upper right-hand corner of your document.
Submission Deadline
December 10.