The picture is from yesterday, when it was sunny and untimely warm and the body enjoyed spring, although the mind understood how strange and bad it is to have spring in February. Today is humid, gloomy and very warm, 16 degrees above the average for the season, and the wind is howling something frightening. We’re expecting a flash freeze tonight and are almost placid about the possibility that we will lose electricity. Or maybe we won’t, in which case we will consider ourselves lucky.

These days, I have received several invitations from people I respect and for the opportunities that could open other doors. Usually, I would be torn between my inability to say no (I really do feel like I owe every person who asks me something) and my ambition that would push me to say yes to everything. Today, I was able to say “no, thank you, it sounds wonderful, but it is not right for me” and actually mean it. It is alarming that I do not remember another time I’d put my well-being above my ambition. I hope this is a start. So, let me write it down and repeat it:

not everything is for me

not every time is right

it’s ok to say no

saying no may empower other people to say no

there is more than one way to love people and more than one way to make a change