It’s not just me. Or you.

The world is feeling very fragile.

Two days ago I rang a dear friend, just to keep in contact as we hadn’t spoken for a while. 

(Fib alert! I actually rang her because I’d run out of pencils to sharpen in lieu of writing the next chapter.)

She’s about the most cheerful person I know. She has indubitably had more than her share of tragedy. But she puts it all behind her and greets every day with a smile of gratitude and has ever since I’ve known her in our teens, and is always full of effervescence and joy and praise.

How are you, I said.

Very fortunate, she said. Gorgeous husband, glorious home, adoring children, grandchildren living a skip from the doorstep…

I expect you, like me, can hear a big galloping But coming over the horizon, clopping its coconut shells together…

And? I said.

Sad. Low. Don’t know why, she confessed. I know I’m being ungrateful…

She then admitted to having spent a day in tears last week, over what seemed objectively a very trivial piece of news.

One of ours rang yesterday. She often does.

How are you? I said.

A bit depressed today, she revealed. It’s all so overwhelming.

I’m depressed, Shaun observed last week as we drove to the seaside to be with family. Some days I’m fine…

D’you know why? I asked. Which is rather a silly question given the list I gave you yesterday as to what’s been on our plates. (And quite a lot more stuff I can’t go into in a public place.)

After enumerating the obvious, he said he believes lockdown is very deflating. It’s the uncertainty, he went on. Simply not knowing is very debilitating.

We can’t even look forward to Christmas…

Maybe, for all I know, you spring from bed every morning with a song on your lips and delight at not having to drag yourself into an office.

Good for you!

But if you’re experiencing this all with a bit more reservation, you’re in the majority.

I was about to say, we’re in it together. But of course, we’re all in our own separate bubbles, in our own separate spaces, simply longing to break out of the skin of them.

So, I thought. Here you are, I thought. Completely free advice from a former professional agony aunt:

CHEERFULNESS TIP:

I have a new regime. It is to be out of the house before eight in the morning. 

Not necessarily dressed, but outside. In the open air, dew on my feet, sky above my head. 

In fact I’m not dressed for a very good reason, peculiar to me… which might cheer you up just reading about it simply because it’s not part of your regime.

When we moved into this house, our first ever own home (well, you know: ours and the bank’s) eleven years ago, we turned down the offer of a smashing skiing holiday with very much adored friends and instead spent Easter digging out the bottom of our garden and building a pool.

And (I’m sick of answering this question to prospective Airbnb guests all summer) of course! It’s solar-heated. That’s right. (In other words… all right, no it’s not. We love our planet. And I tell the family that a hardy attitude does exactly the same job, for free.)

Since the early summer I’ve been telling myself every morning: just get in! It’s very difficult to be depressed if you’ve been swimming outdoors before breakfast.

And this principle applies even more in late September than in mid-June. Every morning I do a lap or two and feel I’ve conquered, if not Everest, something really quite impressive anyway. And probably colder. So if you have a river near you, or the sea, I heartily recommend it. (Though maybe start in summer, next year, and build up to it…)

There you are. My tip for today.

Outside before eight in the morning. In the garden. On your balcony. In the street if you don’t have either. Barefoot is absolutely fine.

The morning sunlight recalibrates your body-clock and helps you sleep at night.

And the cold water, if you can find any, does something similar to the frontal doodah of the brain.

There you go. I bet you never thought to get good, hard, evidenced, incontrovertible scientific whatnot in this blog.

Now press the Comment button and add your own Cheerfulness Tip. If I remember to enable it this time…