These are trying times, we all know that. These are the days when we put our head in our hands or rest our forehead on the kitchen table. These are the days when the latest issue of Money magazine shows up and it merely repeats what we read in the news, listen to on NPR, or watch on TV. Everything is down, nothing is up, no one knows for how long.

In a fit of nostalgia, my mind wandered to the easy days of sunshine in Fort Collins. When I could ride my bike to work; when making $12 dollars an hour selling dance clothes and teaching ballet on the side was enough for an ample living. My difficulties were limited to a random employee at the tattoo parlor keying my Honda, my cat swallowing a plastic washer, and losing a prime job opportunity to the evil matron of a competitive dance team. Isn’t it curious how those situations felt extremely dire? How hard they were at the time? And isn’t unfair that life merely throws new struggles, new hardships of larger magnitude at us every year? Perhaps this is what constitutes as sucking it up, personal growth, and LEARNING.

The sky has remained a permanent shade of grey…January is the darkest month. No matter that we passed up the winter solstice last month. No matter that we need the sunshine–for rejuvenation in addition to drying the remnants of my soiled lawn.

I don’t think I can take much more life lessons. It doesn’t help that all around me people are getting hit hard, with job cuts being announced at Boeing, acquaintances falling ill,