Surrounded by despair.

I am one of those people who is deeply affected by the emotions of those around me. Someone could walk into the room in a bad mood, and I absorb that and spend the rest of the day wondering why I am so damned depressed.

As you can imagine, life has been hard for me since a certain malevolent ignoramus has taken over as president of the U.S. for the second time. Everywhere I go, online and in real life, people are depressed or angry or ready to give up. Just when I've gotten myself to a positive state of mind, someone comes by with a new travesty to lament and I sink back down into the muck.

I don't want to despair. I understand why we are despairing. But, I also think it's important to set aside the chaos that is the U.S. right now, and focus on our individual lives and what beauty and hope we may find there. Even if the only thing I can come up with to be thankful for is that I am still breathing and I have a cat warming my lap.

That is enough for now.