A Wave of Anxiety

I was watching the local news last evening, when I suddenly felt a massive wave of anxiety wash over me. 

I suspect it’s a combination of several things, starting with the ongoing news about the coronavirus pandemic and the daily updates about how many people have died from this disease. Not only does my local news update the number of cases, deaths and hospitalizations in my state of New Mexico, but numbers for the Navajo Nation and Colorado as well. That's a triple whammy.

Then came the news that the president has decided to remove nondiscrimination protection in health care and health insurance for members of the LGBTQ community, which means that medical providers and insurers can, and some certainly will, discriminate against them. And let’s not forget about continuing reports of police brutality against Blacks, including deaths. Protest marches continue as well.

With so much negativity and stress-inducing events dominating the news, it's nearly impossible not to feel anxious these days. I am doing my best to control the anxiety, as that's the only thing about the current situation I can control.

So I continue to read ... a lot. I just finished reading Elton John's autobiography. Now I'm reading a work of fiction by Anne Hillerman, daughter of the late author Tony Hillerman. She is continuing her father's series of Navajo mysteries. This should be a nice break from reality.

I continue to walk 4 miles or so every day. I've also been immersing myself in my photography. I have been plowing through the tens of thousands of digital images I have, deleting bad shots and duplicates, and discovering many good shots I had previously overlooked. What got me started on this process was realizing that since I am unable to travel and take new images to use in my annual sale of photo wall calendars, I needed to find 'new' images not previously published. Although time-consuming, this has been a wonderful exercise. Not only have I deleted a bunch of images and found a lot of good ones, looking at these photos has brought back wonderful memories. This review also made me realize how much my photography skills have improved since my first trip to Africa in 2014. 

Another thing that helps keep me calm happens every morning as I have my morning cup of hot tea. I try to buy a coffee cup from each country or place I visit. This morning, for example, I used a hand-thrown cup by a potter whose studio we visited in Nicaragua. The cup has a red hibiscus blossom on one side, and a blue and white bird on the other. Each morning I get to experience again one of the many places I have visited.

At some point I will finish my photo review. I will continue to design calendars, relive memories and hope things in this country calm down.