Cry Day

This week is not my week. This month is not my month. I hate November. I know, I know, how can I hate the month of Thanksgiving? Yeah well, this is new to me too. My Papaw died last November, and I can't look at the month the same way. My beloved nephew was born this month, and my grandparents' anniversary is also this month, but I just can't get past the death date. This will mark our first year of loss. Maybe over time I can look forward to this month again, but right now I do not care. I don't have to.

On top of my existing emotional distress, last night a few disturbing things happened to me. The first was that two strangers approached my door, trying to get me to switch energy companies. This was not disturbing, but it was out of the ordinary. I was trying to cook, and they were wasting my time, ignoring my rejections. Very frustrating. Then I went for a run during which someone verbally assaulted me and threw a full can of beer at me from their moving vehicle. This was the spoiled icing on top of the shit cake. Although their cowardly actions literally did not even do so much as slow my pace on my run, it was a jarring moment in which someone tried to physically hurt me for absolutely no reason other than the sickness in their own heart. They drove away, and I was okay, dodging the throw, but then several minutes later I fell in the crease of a sidewalk, tearing up my left knee for the third time this year. I was so angry with myself for falling. I was frustrated at the outcome of the events of the day. I was angry with myself for being angry with myself. I was a mess of emotions, and I thought to myself, "Maybe I should take tomorrow off and just stay home and cry." Then the idea developed.

Cry-day. At work we have personal days, mental health days, sick days, vacation days, and the unprofessional but still themed Sunday Fun-day, Caturdays, Thirsty Thursdays, need I go on? One can assume that a personal day or a mental health day could be used for crying, but among the young professionals I know, both of those types of days have been used for job interviews, shopping days (honestly, yeah that is retail therapy!!), and travel.

Then I gave Cry-day some serious thought. I want a Cry-day because my depression has returned, and I completely deserve a day to myself to stay in bed and mourn about whatever I want, whether that's my flaky fingernails, my messy house, or my grandpa's death. There is no shame in that. Everybody deserves a Cry-day once in awhile. Maybe if we had designated Cry-days, we could start to remove a bit of the stigma around mental health overall. If I knew my co-worker had taken a Cry-day, I would immediately be more sensitive and more importantly, I would try to be a friend. I would text them at the end of the day to see if they needed anything, and I would offer to do something with them that week, to cheer them up or ease their mind. I would suggest that they treated him/herself to something, maybe ice cream, and if they couldn't afford it I would buy it for them. That's just me though. That's the perspective of the writer behind The Peace Mobile.

No one has to know why you needed a Cry-day, but it is important that someone knows that you did. So until I somehow make this Cry-day a thing in the "real" world, let's have Cry-days together. If you need to take a Cry-day, tell your best friends you've been feeling blue and explain the Cry-day concept. <3 p="">

I wasn't sure of what photo to use for a Cry-day, but flowers always make me smile! :)