A moment of pure happiness

Driving down the freeway, rain spattered my windshield. Mountains rose in the distance, swathed in mist. Zipping through the saturated palette of charcoal, forest green and white, water whipping beneath my tires in a satisfying spray, I felt the luckiness of my life. To live in such a beautiful location is something I have been aware of countless times before, but this is a desert and rain is seldom sustained for more than a few minutes at a time. This was a real downpour, lasting hours and recalling to memory the rainstorms of Upstate New York.  Lifting tendrils of fog in foreground and their effect on the colors of scenery made the joy of wild weather hum softly in me, underscored by my confidence in the imperviousness of my little cherry-hued travelling machine. How glorious, to live in this valley, to own a car and have a place to drive during the rarity of rain!

Foggy mind

Lowered clarity of thought is one of the side effects of my thyroid conditions. I have to say, I'm glad I know how intelligent I am because I have not been hitting my highest levels of insight for some time now, haha. My mind feels fuzzy and I see myself not catching things I used to be able to get with significantly less effort. It is such an odd feeling to notice that I don't have the thinky thinky firing the way it used to. Gratefully, it amuses more than frustrates me. I think this is largely because I've seen the severity ebb and flow a little bit based on how well I'm doing with sleep, healthy food, exercise, and etc., so I know that when I'm feeling more foggy I know it can pass and I'll be closer to normal (for me) some time again in the future.

Anywhoozle, I am working to do more things that will increase my brain activity to combat that side effect a bit more. Team, did you know that activities which increase the firing of neurons are basically all fun?! Coloring, listening to music, playing an instrument, writing, socalizing, building projects, exercising... it's great! I've only been working on incorporating these mentally stimulating activities more deliberately for a couple days. I've already noticed that the biggest reason I wasn't doing a lot of these things, which I genuinely find enjoyable anyhow, was due to feeling tired. Ye old energy levels be real, man. But taking one step forward, past the sensation of buzzy brain/I'm-too-worn-out has been rewarding. I don't hit it hard, either. For example, tonight, instead of laying on the couch until bedtime, I sat on it, colored for about 20 minutes, and then wrote this. And a bit of the fug lifted. :)