September was amazing, October was wonderful. I don’t know what happened in November but it hasn’t been my month. Is it the weather? That I’ve been spending less time outside? Not enough vitamin D? Just general hormones wreaking havoc. Who knows. All I know is that my November has been less than stellar.

After a few weekends of yelling at the kids and a bout of loneliness even though I’m surrounded by people. I decided that I needed to fake it—fake a better mood into existence.

Sometimes this means I need to go back to the basics. Wake up. Have coffee. Journal. Read. Have a second coffee before attempting anything else. It definitely means I need to make something. It means I need to set simple intentions—simple like, Stay calm—and then try to remember them across the day. It means I need to find a way to move my body. It means I need to make like Teflon around things that aggravate me and let them slide. It means I need to do one thing that’s different, that forces me out of my rut. It means I need to pretend.

The pretending thing is funny because on the one hand, I fully acknowledge that my mood is shite, but on the other hand, I get to imagine myself in a world in which it is not.

Either way, it’s time for patience and grace. And to remember that, as an adult, my mood is my own responsibility.

And a reminder that, in the words of Guns ‘n Roses, Nothing lasts forever in the cold November rain…

-mtg