Franzone Family Blog

Just a little while ago my 19 month old daughter ran up to me and shouted excitedly, “hide!” At the time I was sitting at my desk as I am working from home again. I knew immediately what she meant. Thankfully I was not on a conference call at the moment, I wasn’t chatting with anyone via IM and I wasn’t deep in the middle of some process. So I scooped her up in my arms and we ran off to my bedroom. We leaped with cat-like precision onto the bed as I grabbed the comforter that is usually folded up at the end of the bed and pulled it up over our heads. Avery giggles and holds her finger up to her nose in a gesture that says, “shhhh.” We pull the covers down and shout, “boo!” at nobody. She talks excitedly as if Mommy or Bubba might run into the room at any moment.

After a few minutes of this I pry her from the bed and we make our way back to the front of the house where she goes to Mommy and I go back to work. This is an almost daily ritual… and I absolutely love it! This is one of the very reasons that I thank God I work from home. How lucky and blessed am I.

Not anymore! I must admit that my month long stint in Fairbanks, Alaska brought on some serious feelings of depression. I’m not sure if it was the darkness or separation from my family or both. My suspicion is that it was option C… both. I’m so glad to be back in Florida, though and the weather has been oh so accommodating. It has been in the low 70s this past week; perfect weather.

Back on the topic of depression. I have a somewhat melancholy personality and so depressions seems like a close neighbor quite often. I know that many other people have depression tendencies as well, so I wanted to share this article from Tim Ferriss, How You Label Determines How You Feel.

Don’t use the term “depression,” which is loaded with negative and clinical connotations, without considering other labels that might be more appropriate. “Loneliness” or “isolation” are two common substitutes which are not just more precise but more actionable (the term “depression” doesn’t suggest a solution).

Now I am not suggesting that there is no such thing as clinical depressions. I’m merely saying that I’ve experienced this type of thing in my own life. Sometimes just saying, “I am depressed” can make you feel a thousand times worse.