Greetings from Atlanta

On doing unpleasant things to get to fun things

Dear Friend,

I’m writing to you from Atlanta, Georgia, at the end of a lovely long weekend. We connected with friends, attended a cast and crew screening of a short film that Paul directed, and enjoyed the Atlanta Horror Film Festival, where my film, “Bunny,” screened on Sunday.

Not surprisingly, I have more short-film related thoughts to share, which will comprise another letter once I can get them in order.

In the meantime, I was writing in my personal journal about a not-film-related moment and thought it might be worth sharing.

Thursday, around midnight, Paul and I were sitting in the airport, bracing for a long red-eye flight. Lately, I’ve been waking up with energy and optimism that seems to leak away as the day progresses, until by the end of the day I tend to feel depleted and even defeated. This has not always been my body clock—maybe this is how one ends up waking and sleeping earlier and earlier as we get older!

In any case, sitting at the gate my end-of-day depletion combined with my dread of the flight and random anxiety about the trip as a whole. Paul, too, was feeling, as he described it, “heavy.” I commented to him, “Wouldn’t it be great if we were just sitting on our couch at home right now?” I was wishing to not be going on an adventure.

But our travels went pretty smoothly, and by the time we touched down in Atlanta, my dread and anxiety were gone. After a four hour nap, I was ready to face the world again. I ended up having a great weekend and making discoveries I would never have made from my couch.

Even though I’ve learned this lessons, I have to keep reminding myself that:

• It’s worth doing unpleasant things in order to arrive at fun things.

• Although I’m often nervous about the fun things and doubt they’ll be fun, they usually are.

• When I see the lives of people who travel often for work or play, and think “I wish I could do that,” it’s because I’m forgetting the moments of dread and anxiety. Even though I do think it’s worth it sometimes, I also enjoy having some couch time.

• The morning sun is curative after long nights and other ordeals. (Naps also help.)

Here’s a short article I saw about morning optimism

Hope you have a good day today and a great sleep tonight!

xo

B