It's a beautiful, cool, sunny, blue-skied day, and the leaves on the trees along our street are a gorgeous mix of yellow and green. I was feeling deeply, deeply stressed this morning, but after a long invigorating walk with Nika and a friend, I'm feeling way better. It's so good to be able to vent out every irritation and nagging insecurity--and to do it while walking through beautiful, rolling hills, with cows grazing in the fields around us, is just about the most soothing thing I can imagine.

I decided that I (and, well, everyone who had to deal with me or have contact with me in any way) really, really needed to take a day off yesterday before I exploded. So I followed a suggestion from Jennifer Louden's The Woman's Comfort Book (which is jam-packed with useful suggestions for feeling better), and made yesterday a "Hiding Under the Covers" day. I hung out on the couch under my soft blue afghan, Nika snuggled up with me, and I read Jennifer Crusie's Bet Me until I finished it, putting on real clothes only when I needed to take Nika out or go to a friend's house for tea. I did no "real" work; I did no housework. It was my Day Off. It was amazing how much better I felt at the end of it (and how much less Maddening and Aggravating everything else in the world around me suddenly seemed--a miracle!). I didn't mean to do any writing either, but somehow, out of nowhere, the first two pages of a kids' novel popped out. And they were fun. And I'm going to pursue them, despite all the Practical Serious Reasons for why I should put them off and do Serious Grownup Novels at the moment. (And hey, who am I trying to kid anyway? None of my novels could be called Serious in a literary way, regardless of how I try to angle them. So why worry about it?)

This morning, unfortunately, Life got back in the way again, and all the stresses rushed right back at me. But hey, I've got beautiful scenery and fresh, cool air into which I can let out all my frustrations. I really love the autumn.