Shortly after we arrived in Florida, I found myself in a funk, oddly enough. The trip down had gone more smoothly than usual, no bad weather nor significant traffic jams. Things were mostly unpacked, and I’d fixed the disorganized mess that I found the kitchen in, at least enough that I could get a meal on the table. Meanwhile, we are within sight and sound of the ocean and breathing lovely salt air. So why the funk?

I still don’t know exactly. But in looking around on the internet to find suggestions for crawling out of a funk, I came across a blog post by a psychotherapist, Alex Lickerman, M.D. Dr. Lickerman describes his own experience of being in a funk this way: “At various times in my life, I’ve found myself in a state I can only describe as a funk—not depressed, but listless, purposeless, unable to motivate myself and caring about very little. Words like ‘flat,’ empty,’ and ‘disconnected come to mind. It’s not a particularly pleasant state.” Wow! He had described my frame of mind and heart to a T.

Goodness knows there is enough in the air right now to send anyone into a funk. The funk virus is out there and we’re all getting sick. I don’t need to detail the specifics—they range from the intimately personal and the congregational to the global. This item from USA Today puts a sharp point on it. “Each year, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a nonprofit group that sets the [Doomsday] Clock, decides whether the events of the previous year pushed humanity closer to or further from destruction. The clock ‘conveys how close we are to destroying our civilization with dangerous technologies of our own making’,” according to the group. This year, the clock moved to 100 seconds to midnight.

The world’s closeness to catastrophe is now being expressed in seconds, not hours or even minutes. Rachel Bronson, CEO of the group, pointed out, “It’s the closest to Doomsday we have even been in the history of the Doomsday Clock.” According to the group, three things have contributed to our present dire state: the threat of a “civilization-ending nuclear war,” and “climate change that could devastate the planet,” both compounded by the seeming inability of the institutions that should be doing something about it to act. The third is “cyber-enabled information warfare.” The hyperbolic language of the doomsday clock notwithstanding, there can be no denying the direness of our present situation.

I wish I could write an upbeat paragraph on how we can fix this, but I can’t. What I do know is that getting into a funk doesn’t help. I’m sharing Dr. Lickerman’s suggestions in the hope that some of in our beloved community will find one or more of them useful. He points out that he doesn’t always known the cause of his own funks and writes that sometimes he just must wait it out until it resolves. But he’s discovered a few things over the years that help, at least sometimes:

• Connect with people who call forth constructive energy for you. I’ve often commented that I can walk into church on a Sunday morning feeling low, and leave feeling much better, energized and more positive. I hope that’s true for many of you as well.
• Commit to a goal. Listlessness can be “purposelessness in disguise.” Connect with what gives you a sense of purpose. I realized that I’d been bouncing from one task to the next without any real schedule, and I function much better with some schedule. Making the beginnings of a real schedule for myself helped. [An excellent service at the UU church we attend here, and dinner with my husband at a delightful local place on the water, really good caprese flatbread and wine didn’t hurt either!]
• Read a book or see a movie that grabs your attention and won’t let go. The book suggestion often works for me. I’ve been able to lose myself in a book ever since I was able to read, and the new perspective always helps. Crossword puzzles do the same thing for me. This carries a whiff of escapism, but sometimes, that’ exactly what’s needed. It’s a mini-vacation.
• Travel, he suggests, can help too. What I’ve discovered is that the length of a trip isn’t as crucial as that it involve something that’s different. Changing our environment, if only temporarily, may change how we feel. Even knowing we have a trip coming up boosts my mood.
• Finally, one option, as he suggests, is to simply wait it out. Sooner or later, life will hand us new challenges that will energize us.

Resilience, the ability to bounce back in the face of harsh adversity or when everyday funks visit us occasionally, is a trait that can be cultivated. The first two suggestions above—connect with people and committing to a goal—are especially relevant to cultivating resilience in the face of recent events in our congregation. And we’re working on ways to do both. I urge all of us to participate in whatever ways we can; even if we don’t feel over-the-top enthusiastic, give it a try. You’ll likely be pleasantly surprised.

Rev. Julia