Each moment is a chance to start over. I feel aquiver, I ask myself what’s happening, I take a deep breath, accept that I don’t know, and . . . feel better.

The “what’s happening?” intervention is based in neuroscience. To over simplify, It makes my brain flip from the right side – emotional, scared, apprehensive – to the left side – logic and reason. My brain doesn’t hang out long on the left, but the brief reprieve from the turmoil on the right works wonders. It provides a fresh look at the upheavel in my mind.

Sometimes I look around at all the people I pass on my walks, and I wonder what is going on in their brains. Who are they praying for? What are they fretting about? What are they planning? What furniture are they rearranging in their heads? (I do this a lot.)

This week has been a rough week. The shit hit the fan. The fan is unpredictable. I try to make sense of patterns. It is related to last weekend’s full moon? Trying to find patterns is a way of shifting from right to left, from despair to figuring it out – even though I know there is no figuring anything out except math. And I stink at that.

We all have stuff that could break us down, but we don’t let it. I think of friends fighting debilitating disease, parents with ill children, homeowners with major water damage, renters who can’t pay the rent, adults witnessing the deterioration of parents, workers losing their jobs, people lost in isolation, poverty, homelessness.

We can live in the swirl and spin constantly. Or we can settle into this moment of what’s happening – life.

A friend said this week – “life is life.” And it is blessed.

Sometimes I feel like I am living in a tilt-a-whirl, and I have friends who serve as my focal point so I don’t fall down. If I do, they pick me up.

When I pull my head up out of grief, sadness, fear, uncertainty, tension, disagreement, despair, I see light, love, Grace, and Spirit – in community. We are indeed all in this together.

Remember the Hamill Camel in the 1976 Olympics? Dorothy Hamill’s amazing spin (and incredible hair)? Like her, we come out of it!

We are indeed “having the time of our life” in each moment, regardless of what it brings.