Good morning Couch.

If I had a nickel for everytime I've said "cheap, fast or good, pick two" I could afford to have things done fast and good.

And I second or third the notion, JustShakey, that it is NEVER to late to pursue what is meaningful to you. Having just graduated university, I saw so many wonderful, empowered people doing just that, at all ages.

In better news, this week I've gotten a raise, given my notice to a time-sapping university volunteer gig, gotten my yard returned to pre-college shape (Thank goodness!) and gotten to have four sessions in a row. I really, really, found them helpful after working at breakneck speed the last two years. I juggled a 60 hour per week job, a challenging daughter, full time university, part time transitional job, and that university gig. It did have a cost, and I was an anxious mess at the beginning of the week as continued trying to deaccelerate. I was in that awful limbo between jetting through life and that gap where I'd returned to normal cruising speed but my psyche hadn't adjusted to the change yet.

Five hours of therapy later, I'm feeling a lot better anxiety-wise, and more ready to enjoy my commencement next week. Our last session of the week was last night, and I drove to my little town's waterfront on the Puget Sound. It was so serene out there, I found a little glen of tall grasses, flowering, and blooming blackberry bushes. I followed a narrow path through the brambles to a patch of lawn right next to a stony brook, and overlooking the harbor. We really had more of a meditation on nature for a while, and then, for the first time in a long time, I asked her to walk me through a progressive relaxation exercise- I'd been too stressed to do it for a while.

My therapist is so integral to my life. It's just... so good to have a partner in destressing. It does really feel like having Winnicott's therapist/good enough mother. And now, as I accepted her very sweet gift of dresses, I'll always have something to wear to connect me with her caring.

It has been a *good* therapy week.