Ok, as promised above, that is another Ireland picture. I took it in Ballinrobe, County Mayo, my grandfather's birthplace. For those of you who don't know, those are beer kegs.

"Drinking in Ireland is not simply a convivial pastime, it is a ritualistic alternative to real life, a spiritual placebo, a fumble for eternity, a longing for heaven, a thirst for return to the embrace of the Almighty." Irish drinking patterns are, he writes, "evidence of a deep hole in the Irish psyche which only alcohol can fill." John Waters

"A 2009 Irish Health Board Report showed that 54 percent of respondents (about 2.14 million adults out of a population of 4.2 million) engage in harmful or risky drinking each year, compared to a European average of 28 percent. "

People drink on St. Patrick's Day to "celebrate". John Waters thinks it is “evidence of a deep hole in the Irish psyche which only alcohol can fill.” I think it is something more. My intuition is that the hole in the Irish psyche is about sugar sensitivity. Those who are creative, who feel deeply, who are courageous and compassionate suffer more. We are less armored, less shielded, wrapped in less Beta Endorphin. I think the Irish found whiskey because they had potatoes, and time while waiting for the crops to mature. Other sugar sensitives found sugar and sweets.

As you might guess I don't think that either whiskey or beer is the solution to the *deep hole*. I think that hole rests in a compromised amygdala deep in the brain. The amygdala has 2 parts, one does anger and fear, one does sorrow and joy. If you learn to live from the joy side, the anger and fear side fades. We have a path for this.

Start with creating Steady State, and then learn to live with Steady in Joy. When we start,

Life is hard, a little chaotic,

we are kinda attached to misery

or we don't know how to get out of it.

We start doing the food. It feels hard. We struggle with depression, discouragement.

But we try something outrageous. We try doing *joy dots*.

Every day we notice 3 small things that touch our hearts.

It feels a little weird, maybe a little artificial...

A robin pulling a worm.

Water flowing in the acequia.

A glint of sunlight on the Guadalupe statue.

After a bit, something seems to shift. We start being surrounded by what we think of.

It is as if we have a joy magnet in our hand. Joy dots start creating a joy life.

Now I see sunlight other places, I see leaves budding on the trees, I smell Mac and Cheese bubbling in the oven.

All I did was joy dots.