This week has put me through the wringer at work in such a way as no other week at any other job has. Starting some two months ago, we'd lost so many people that we started being short-staffed, and then we lost more one month ago, and it's not gotten much better. Now, this week, both of the people I'm supposed to be backing up are on vacation and despite having some help from other sources, I've put in ten and a half hour days from Tuesday through today. I even was able to get special permission to work on the June 19th holiday so that I could get a head start, and it's not easy to get that permission.

From Sunday through today, I've put in a total of 57 hours, breaking my old all-time record of about 55 hours, and there's still Saturday. I've had so many emergencies to deal with, some of which from work that I barely know anything about, that I've fallen way behind on my own work.

I started feeling physically sick from stress by Wednesday, and it's been a while since I've dreaded coming in every morning this much.

But just after I got off the bus when I got to work this morning, a butterfly fluttered around me, then landed on my arm, right where I could get a good look at it without moving. And look at it, I did. It only stayed there for about ten seconds before it flew away.

And I tell you, for those ten seconds, I felt completely worry-free, my mind not in the least on the many things bothering me, just feeling grateful that such an unlikely event. Afterwards, I felt ready to face one more day.

I've made use of the short time I have these days in the evenings to calm down and prepare for the next day...

But this was the first time I felt so much like smiling in too long.