Emotions are these intangible sensations that rule our lives. Unless you are enlightened or happily swallowing anti-depressants, our emotional disposition is like a dictatorship on our souls. If we weren’t so affected by how we felt, we could finally feel happy.

But is not always appropriate to express our emotions, nor are we always aware of how best to. Joy, although the most allusive to access, is the most infectious and powerful to share. If you are feeling happy, you don’t have to overthink how it manifests because you want to spread it like jelly. But feelings driven by negativity are easier to connect to, and when we do choose to expel them the people in our wake suffer the tidal wave.

I experienced an emotional outrage of such epic proportions from The Munch last evening that I thought I was going to drop kick her, or leave her in the woods to work it out on her own. My friend Emily and I decided to go for a walk with her, and we were all having a grand time until The Munch tripped. She didn’t bash her face, and it didn’t seem out of the ordinary, but for some reason that moment released a demon.

We tried everything to console her from games of peek-a-boo, to running, to spinning, to singing, to a boob in her face and nothing could still the storm. Now here is where maybe I was contributing to her frenzy. I still wanted to be outside and watch the sunset because it WAS FUCKING BEAUTIFUL OUTSIDE. Maybe I could have immediately taken her inside, but maybe that wasn’t really the problem. I will never know. But as much as I was trying to tend to her and be there for her, I also wanted to keep living my life and have a moment.

“You know Toni, maybe she just needs to get this out? I bet when it is over she is going to feel elated?”

“Or maybe Emily I am going to shoot myself in the face.”

When I finally succumbed that I would not find peace in this situation, I took her inside, cuddled, and nursed her and she fell asleep.

I feel like we all learned a life lesson because of this emotional purging of The Munch. For Emily and me it was about trying to maintain Zen amongst the chaos of another person. In life we may feel good, but get bombarded by the negative energy of other people. The question is learning how to be present for another person, but not let them drag you into their cyclone of misery. Maintaining a healthy distance from one person’s emotions and your own.

For The Munch, she learned the power of a catharsis. Sure enough, when she woke up, she was euphoric. In one of the best moods I have ever seen her in! I guess you were right Emily… she just needed to get it out…