January Wallpaper of the Month

Holy shit, hello January. I wish I could say that you were bringing hope and new beginnings for us this year, but I don’t think 2021 is the one. The holidays leading up to this January were…odd. Seeing family was nice, of course. The food, always exceptional. But sitting around a living room with face masks on, energy both paranoid yet exhausted, makes the end of this year feel like a communal drudge. Knowing that 2021 will likely look a lot like 2020. Not the New Year hope we want and need, but I am admittedly an eternal optimist. During times like this, I have a near biological urge to look to the light and peel myself and everyone else off the floor.

This month’s wallpaper is the one bright light of daily life that I discovered through a year of isolation. A good, goddamn walk. Especially in super-cold weather. I won’t spend the time here to tell you about the benefits of cold exposure therapy, BUT, I can tell you that during a time where we can barely get motivated to shower, making the concerted effort to be outside and active is profoundly healing. I know I am not breaking any news here, but I am a professional homebody with crippling change resistance. Walking, especially with Reuben, helps to complete my Stress Response Cycles (read Burnout to learn more on that crazy shit), and is some of the only time I spend out of my house.

I hope as you enter the new year, you use some of your isolation time to enjoy walking. For your sanity, clarity, or just a damn change of scenery. Here we go, 2021. Please don’t kill us.