Previously I've written about the upside and downside to positive thinking. And while positivity and negativity might be polar opposites, combining optimism with action can lead to finding a balance between the extremes.

Not long after I graduated from college, I worked at a government agency. One of my co-workers was in the middle of a bitter divorce. Prior to the divorce, he stayed home caring for his two young sons. Once his wife left him, however, she filed for custody of the children. At the time, he did not contest the filing, as he did not want to upset his kids any more than they already were. However, he was clearly heartbroken and missed nurturing his children.

A few years back we were able to negotiate a Thanksgiving deferral, a plan that moved our family holiday gathering to the weekend after Thankgiving or bypassed the holiday madness altogether, pushing our annual family pow wow up into January birthday season. We're lucky, no kids, retired parents, a weird genetic disposition towards avoiding traditional employment gives us independence in planning.

Today, a panel of the University of California Regents—the ten-university system's governing body—approved a proposal to increase undergraduate "fees" (UC's word for tuition) by 32 percent over the coming year. Should the full board of Regents consent to the increase tomorrow, students will see a fee increase of more than $2,500 by fall 2010.

The father of a friend of mine died recently.  Here’s how it happened:   She was driving home from a board meeting thinking about the finishing touches that she needed to put on a grant.  Her cell phone rang.  It was her brother telling her that her father wasn’t feeling well.  He’d been a bit under the weather.  She rushed to his home.  He was talkative and joking.  A couple of hours later, he had a heart-attack and died surrounded by his children and other family members. 

Late this summer, my father died. I'm still grieving the loss. I will be grieving the loss for the rest of my life. But the rest of life is a very long time, and there are many days to get through, and so I work very hard on coping and I think that I'm doing pretty well. But some days are harder than others. Some days are much harder than others. Holidays are the hardest.

Just two days after a wonderful, slobbery visit with my favorite dog, Murray, a black lab belonging to friends, I got an upsetting phone call from one of them yesterday. "Are you sitting down?" asked Beanie. "Murray has cancer."

Fake plastic wishbones? Around Thanksgiving time last year, I read a post by blogger Rejin from Urban Botany blasting People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) for promoting plastic Lucky Break Wishbones. She wrote: Hasn't PETA ever heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? They claim these wishbones and their packages are recyclable, but let's face it: 99.99% of them are going to end up in a landfill, or in the ocean, where they will probably be swallowed by sea turtles [And I would add baby albatross chicks] who will choke and die.... Animals, PETA, animals! Do you hear me? Apparently PETA did not because the organization promoted the wishbones again this year. Products like these are what blogger Linda Anderson from Citizen Green would call "stupid plastic crap."

As we move closer and closer to the holidays, I'm feeling a wee bit anxious. Sort of like waiting for the proverbial stuff to hit the fan. Caregiving is like that. A caregiver named Fern, quoted on About.com, said: “I wish the calendar would flip directly from November to January. We just got settled into our routine since Mom moved in with us. As I look at my calendar, all I see are more things on the to-do list, extra burdens, and the chaos of disrupted schedules.”

Over the past few days, a Biblical verse has reportedly topped the google trends charts. It is also turning up in bumper stickers and tee shirts across the country. It reads: “Pray for Obama: Psalm 109:8” But what do you see when you look up that Psalm? “May his days be few; may another take his office.”

It seems like a dream job, yet again, sort of like The Best Job in the World competition. It's Expedition 206, a Coca-Cola funded tour of the planet with the lofty goal of finding out what happiness means to people all around the world. The winners, three "Happiness Ambassadors" are going on a 206 country tour in one year to, according to the site, "Find out what makes people happy."

When I tell people that my favorite season is winter, they think I’m crazy.  Most people think of short days, cold weather, hectic holiday shopping, and endless snow.  Of course I also mind these inconveniences, but I still relish the coming season.