Greetings,

Some of you may have noticed my absence fro the platform. The past 4-6 weeks I've been having problems with depression. My employment is fairly challenging, mentally, physically, and emotionally, and therefore I've put my entire attention into keeping my work aligned and moving forward. I've been more or less successful. I'm still way behind in grading, but I think I can finish the semester with a little effort.

With the new month coming I'm again going to attempt to rejoin the Steemit community. I'd like to use the Steemitboard monthly author award as incentive to keep myself involved. My real-life social engagement is relatively limited; at work I do not often see peers, but am primarily interacting with individuals that are my subordinates or superiors, which dictates the nature of my conversations. Outside my 60-80 hour work week I don't really see other people, and recently I've been focusing on sleep.

I'll probably write more about this depression later, but for now, I should simply state that I'm OK. Basically I understand that I'm depressed and I'm able to recognize that my perception of the world is influenced by this. My approach to dealing with this, the past weeks, has been to observe myself and the depression, looking for distinctions. If the symptoms persist or worsen I will seek a pharmaceutical solution, but if this is only a temporary problem I'd rather avoid these medications.

I have to say that this is very much a strange state for me. I've been depressed before, but this is distinctly different. It feels separate from me, as if I have a cold or flu. My nose doesn't normally run, so I can identify this as being ill. In the same way, I don't see any significant reason for hopelessness, so this overwhelming feeling is again coming from some other source. Yes, I'm having some financial and social issues, but their shadow is finite. They should not block out the sun entirely, which is how I have been seeing the world.

To those of you with whom I was corresponding prior to my departure, I am sorry. I hope that you are willing to understand and accept my most sincere apology.

Thank you.