Last night, my cat decided he'd climb on my lap for some loving while I was watching TV. I can live with my cat, I can sleep with my cat, I can even eat with my cat... but I CANNOT pet him and touch my eyes or they swell up and itch so bad I could claw them out.

Well, I remembered to not touch my face for a short while after I pet him. Then my left eye started tearing, itching, burning; the usual. Half a bottle of Visine cleared it up... but this morning both my eyes were gummy and swollen. It felt like I'd been crying all night. So what does my mind do? Picks up on it immediately!

I wasn't even out of bed before my mood was in the pits. I almost started crying. Then I stopped myself and asked "Why are you crying??" That's when it hit me. I had no reason to cry... except that my EYES FELT LIKE I HAD!

Makes one wonder about oneself and a community like this, where depression is the norm... how many times we allow our brain to make unconscious, irrational decisions for us?

For myself, I'm going to print out, yet again, a sheet of paper with the words, in bold, capitalized...

STOP

THINK

ACT
as opposed to "react" - a knee jerk reaction