Okay now, just calm down!

I seem to be turning into a chronic night owl. My family is asleep, including all the pets, and I have new energy and a peaceful space.

The heaviest part of my work week these days is Thursday-Friday. This shifts and changes throughout the year as clients come and go, their own schedules requiring adjustments to my own.

Yesterday I returned to Juvenile Hall after the Thanksgiving break and chemotherapy on Tuesday, one of my usual days with the kids. It was great to see them - a girls' therapy group - but they were like herding cats.

After some chatting I taught them a bit about zentangling, a wonderful and contemplative skill they can use to calm themselves, enter into a deeper state and add some beauty to the world. It was extraordinarily hard for them to work silently (with Christmas music in the background) and refrain from discussing the latest gossip of their homies. But that's why they need all the relaxation training the world has to offer - and zentangling seems to be one of the more effective. By the end of the hour each girl had a new page in her art journal.