August -- gone

There is just over an hour left in August of 2013.

Quite a month.  It is so precious here in new England, and it goes by like a breath of salt air off the ocean.  Gone.

What happened this month, beside the world almost having everyone go to war again because a few crazy people can't share power?

I didn't work almost all of August.  More than ever I really enjoyed not going to the office.  The patients are all important and worth the effort, but the system has become even more complex and burdensome, and the big insurance companies continue to find ways to pay us less, and then blame it on Obama.

I did spend a lot of time with some crazy people, but they were not my patients, so I could just let them be interesting and let them prattle on about their views of the world, themselves and whatever it was they found so meaningful. Noy my problem.

Today was my daughter's birthday and, as it happens, my daughter-in-law's birthday, which makes things a bit hectic.  But now, to add to the confusion, my newest grandchild, and first grandson, was born yesterday.  He is a big, healthy boy, with two tired, proud parents and an almost two year-old sister who is still trying to figure out why her life is suddenly so different.

So the world reamins it's complex, unfiar, unaring, often cruel place, but my immediate, tightly knit, cloesely guarded spot in it remains remarkably, happy, prosperous, and almost all very healthy.

But now August is gone.  It is  that sweet, melancholy time when the light becomes sharper and golden, when things start up again and become more serious.  We put away the hammock and the kayak, and wonder where the time went.  We didn't get to take that five mile walk to the end of land to the lighthouse for the fifth year of planning to do so. I did paddle across Pleasant Bay.  I did take the girls to the beach and run in and out of the water, and in and out of the water, and in and out of the water.

Hopefully we will do it all again next year, with the boy sitting in the sand, and we try to stop him from eating it.

Back to work

The summer will continue, but for now, I am returning to my office.  I did have a marvelous week at the beach house.  I did get to go to the beach with my grandgirls, although Elmo stayed at the house.  We threw rocks into the waves, we sat on the edge of the water and made splashes. I got to see my children be parents, which is kind of weird, but certainly an experience, and it made me very happy and  a little sad (becasue I don't want to be old)..

Now I am in the re-entry phase.  I picked up my messages and made several phone calls.  I have a lot of appointments this week before I get to go back to the beach.  Some of them have already canceled, others have left messages seeking an appointment and they will will the openings.

Also, I have been perusing some of the blogs of my colleagues.  Most of those are done as kind of marketing tools.  They usually try to spread some psychological wisdom around the Internet.  They give suggestions about how to be active in the summer, how to get people to listen to you, how to be more confident, how to daydream creatively, how to daydream destructively; in general how to live your life in a better, healthier way, if you have any time left after reading how to do all those things correctly.

But this blog is not like that.  As you know this is the anti-marketing blog.  This is where I tell you that I have a very busy week ahead, but there are a few people, a real minority, like 15%, that bother me, and that overshadows my thinking about the folks I am eager to see.  Most of the people I see are working hard to change their lives.  Many are struggling against "strong headwinds." as our President likes to say about the economy.

But there is this small group of patients are really nuts, and they ain't going to get much better, and they weigh me down.  They are the ones who make phone calls while I'm away.  They are bad with boundaries, they are bad with time, they make bad decisions and they don't take responsibility and have little insight, and they talk and talk and talk.

I am sure every therapist, especially if you have been in business for a while, has a bunch of these, but they don't seem to talk about them on their blogs.

So, put on a smile, as it helps your neurology, develop a positive attitude, enjoy the summer, be nice to your friends and family, eat only food that is good for you, don't go into debt, exercise regularly, sleep well, don't worry needlessly, stand-up straight, breath deeply, meditate once in a while, think before you act, and break your addictive habits.  And don't call your therapist unless you need to change your appointment time.