This is a tough time for so many people, one friend from Vermont suggested we start hoarding food. Not yet.

The news is crazy and ugly and off the charts. I wanted to share something I think might be helpful.

My friend Blayney passed along this story of a deep-in despair friend. His therapist told him this: “whatever you do, find one beautiful thing each day, and give it  your full attention.”

His friend followed this excellent advice and told him this was the most powerful antidote to depression he had ever experienced.

This struck home with me for several reasons.

I have done this every day for several years now, sometimes consciously, sometimes instinctively, along with finding something good to do for some other human.

Try it. It works.

My photography encourages me to look for beauty; that’s why I started doing it; my meditation and 2016 taught me that doing good was better than arguing about interest.

Between the two, I can push back the depression and fear I used to feel every day. And amid the horror, my gloom lifts and dissipates.

Joy,  gratitude, mercy,  and beauty are much better.

Here on the farm, it’s a gloomy day here on the farm, and I admit to crashing every time I look at the news and am reminded again against what angry and disturbed men are capable of doing to other human beings.

I often ask myself how to stay grounded and hopeful while I drown in awful news, endless arguments and lies,  and angry weather.

Today, I brought some books to Meg at the Mansion; she is 91 years old and loves to read. I got her three books and ordered a light stand to read effortlessly in her room.

That felt very good.

Then I send a check to Bishop Maginn High School – thanks for those small donations –  to support our efforts to get them the prom they deserve. That felt good.

I went to the food co-op and bought some chocolate to bring to the drive-in window at Walgreen’s. The staff has had a rough year, and chocolate seems to lift their spirits.

I am giving them some lifted mine. It’s effortless to do good. Opportunities are everywhere.

Then I went out in the rain for my afternoon visit to the donkeys and the sheep (especially the donkeys) and gave them their alfalfa treat.

The donkeys were gloomy, too, in all this rain and mud and ice.

They are impatient for green grass and pasture.

I saw a puddle by the gate, and any good photographer knows there is often a reflection when there is a puddle. I moved to one side, and Fanny obliged me – she is wicked bright – and popped up in the pool.

This got her an extra cookie.

And I got a nice photo, not easy in the rain. That always feels good.

It is okay to feel good amid horror and misery. We have to survive.

I am very conscious of what is happening in Ukraine and doing what little I can do to help.

That also feels good. Life has to go on, so does joy and meaning.

I’m not giving up on faith hopefulness, not at the hands of Vladimir Putin, not at the hands of Donald Trump, or the hordes of other angry men riding around the country for weeks in their big trucks looking for something be outraged over.

The love of power and gain writes Thomas Merton, becomes the demonic motivation that leads men and institutions to trample on the hearts and bodies of their fellow men.”

Merton wonders if the problem isn’t that God is dead, But that the hearts and souls of some men and women are dead.

There are many good and beautiful things in the world. They are there for the finding, all around us.

I find at least one every day and make it a point to do one good thing. When I get depressed these days, it’s only for the moment.

The therapist is right.

Finding beauty and doing good is a powerful antidote to looking at the phone or the computer, taking in the horrible news, walking in the cold mud, or having my heart sink into my guts.

It does work.