Gratitude

While I’m not a scented candle and warm bath guy, it struck me that my lower mood and climatically depressed mood seemed to call for a day of self-care: Maybe laying in bed, some spiritual reading, warm beverages, and napping with Clooney would do the trick. Just then my phone buzzed to remind me that my roommate Ben, a great volunteer named Jenny, and I were headed out that morning for 4 hours of shoveling with I Got Bridged (IGB).

Announced by a British travel company, supported with research from psychologist Dr. Cliff Arnall, the concept of Blue Monday refers to the third Monday of January as the gloomiest day of the year.

The webs’ Urban Dictionary defines Funcle as follows: When your Uncle is just to fun too be a normal Uncle: This Uncle must be referred to as Funcle. Personally, I like this definition for its lack of judgment or inference of immaturity. I’m extremely grateful to have more than one Funcles in my life and am really looking forward to being one!

I’m incredibly grateful to work with ThinkFirst to “Serve NH schools and communities by providing at no cost, injury prevention presentations.”

What a blessing that by honestly sharing my experience, others can hopefully be helped. Looking back in reflection, I realize that by shifting from trying to impress and win approval from my audience, to focusing on helping, or at least providing useful information to the listeners relieved all my jitters.      

Let me start with an introduction; my name is Clooney and I just turned 9, that’s the equivalent of 63 years old for you bipeds. I first met Jim in December of 2012 when I was about 6 months old after a long drive up from Georgia. It’s been great living with Jim and the five different roommates we’ve had over the years. They’ve all been really nice to me. It was fun when my Golden cousin Sophie, Uncle Andy, and Aunt Katie moved in the other room for a while, although it got a little crowded in Jim’s bed when Soph fell asleep in there with Jim and I.