It's been raining my entire life.
Intellectually, I understand this is not the case. I have photo documentation. It was sunny on Monday. Maybe even Tuesday. Whichever day India and I did this fun photoshoot with my in my pink supersuit.
And incidentally, there is a photo of my butt that India took either before I jumped or after I landed, and she thinks it's so funny she wants me to put it on her birthday card. No lie.
Anyway.
I can't exactly remember if there was sun on Tuesday, because as I said, it's been grey my entire life.
When the sun is out, it's the best day ever. I feel like this is a childish response, but it is mine. The world is full of hope and I have energy. I'm filled with joy.
I can smile and leap. I know that I radiate happiness, and in the moment, it is true. I beam and it is genuine.
And when there is no sun, it takes all my willpower to get out of bed. Willpower and Nick saying, "Lisa. I need you to. Get. Up."
He has a tone. Nick, who is never affected by the vicissitudes of weather, never pulled up or bogged down by light or lack thereof.
He strides steadily forward in life, accomplishing all he needs to accomplish, never pausing to lament the cloud cover.
Nick has said before that he doesn't envy my lows, but he also doesn't experience the joy of my highs.
So it's been rainy and grey for at least two days or my entire life.
Unless you're with me, you don't know. I still post funny memes and use exclamation points and laugh emojis. (I also wear skinny jeans and have a side part, but that's a whole nother things.)
Yesterday, I turned on the car in the garage before I opened the garage door. Because we live in a place where things disappear quickly if the door is left open, we have it close automatically on a one-minute timer.
And even though we have a sensor, I have this fear that the door will come down on the car if I don't get out in time. So I get in, turn it on, adjust the seat and other bits to my size, start Waze, and generally do all the whatevers necessary to get myself to where I need to go prior to pressing the open button.
As I sat there organizing, I wondered briefly if our garage could fill with carbon monoxide, even though there's a large opening where we come in from the deck.
Would it be possible to sit in there and fall asleep forever?
It wasn't a plan, or even a wish, just a brief wonder.
These are the "just quit" whispers that I know not everyone has. Nick doesn't have a line he needs to keep from crossing, a bridge he sometimes sees.
I thank god that he doesn't. And I know my kids are more likely to.
This isn't any kind of cry for help. I'm fine. I know I've shared this essay before, but I just think it's such a good way of explaining how things are for some of us.
On Wednesday my son said he was absolutely not going to school in the rain.
He's back in a classroom. They're still doing school online, but they have someone in the room to help keep them on track. They get to see friends. They go outside for lunch and recess.
It has changed the state of his mental health.
This is currently only available to the kids who were in the most difficult situations, or who were struggling most online--and still, many turned it down. But we got to a point where it seemed worth the risk with Jordan.
But Wednesday, with more rain, he was all, "This is the worst day ever. I'm NOT going to school!"
And I understood, oh, I understood. Every rainy day is the worst day ever, unless the sun is also shining, which almost never happens.
We cajoled him out the door, teeth unbrushed, because we could only choose between him brushing his teeth and putting on his shoes, and shoes seemed more critical for walking to and attending school.
He voices the extremes in my head. THE WORST DAY EVER.
Obviously, it's not the worst day ever. Hell, I know my worst day ever, and a plain old rainy day will never come close. But in the moment, I get it, I really do.
I think Tuesday might in fact have been sunny, because I think Nick woke me up and said, "It's sunny!" And I said, "Oh, thank God." And Nick said, "I know you mean that."
Sometimes I think about the spring my dad killed himself. It was a relentlessly grey spring. There was no sun.
They went to Hawaii to visit a friend, and it was unseasonably grey there, as well.
The day Dad disappeared was sunny and spectacular, but I think by then he'd hit his limit. I know medication, or lack thereof, was the main problem. But I can't help but think that if it had been a glorious spring, he'd have held on longer.
I don't know. What do I know?
I mean, here's what I know: sun lamps are helpful for me, and so is medication. Getting outside always helps, even if it seems like the stinkiest idea ever. Fish oil is good for your brain.
Wine is a false friend. So is sugar.
I didn't set out to have tea and Cadbury eggs for breakfast this morning, but sometimes that's how it shakes out.
And apparently the sun will come out tomorrow.
I mean really. Not because I'm trying to be all Orphan Annie about it.
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