A month or so ago, I purchased some large bags of candy at Costco. I stored them until yesterday when I filled two large bowls. After a light supper with our family, I stood on our front porch for a couple of hours and gave the candy to the children who came up our walk. I saw tiny ballerinas and unicorns, firefighters and dinosaurs. There were astronauts and the couple from the movie Beetlejuice. I saw a tax collector and an axolotl, a cow, and several Harry Potter characters. Most of the cast of the Wizard of Oz showed up together. There was Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and even the Wicked Witch of the West. But they didn’t have Toto with them. It was a good thing because I didn’t think to get any dog treats for the evening. Just as I ran out of candy to give away my grandchildren and their friends returned with bags of candy they had collected. They sorted through their treasures and refilled my bowl. There were a few treats left when the stream of visitors became a trickle and then stopped entirely. The whole adventure made me very happy.

There are a lot of things that make me very happy.

This morning I looked at a picture posted on the Internet by BBC. It is of a crowd of men who have been ordered by soldiers to strip to their underwear. The men look abject, fearful, and exhausted. In the crowd, highlighted by a red circle added by the news organizations a three-year old girl. Because BBC is not allowed media access to Gaza, it took them a week of working with a network of freelance journalists to identify the child. Her name is Julia. They had another picture of her with her father. The family has been displaced 5 times in the last 21 days. On the day the picture was taken the family was temporarily separated in the crowd of people carrying all of their belongings. Soldiers fired shots over their heads. Julia saw bodies of people who had been killed. Her cousin was killed in a drone strike. She is terrified of planes. She is just one of nearly a million children in Gaza in need of mental health support. 14,000 children have been killed in the war. The pictures and the story left me feeling distressed.

There are a lot of things that make me distressed.

The day before yesterday, I read “The Monster at the end of this book.” I have read that book hundreds of times. I like to read it out loud with my own version of Grover’s voice. I’m sure it isn’t much like the Sesame Street character, but it is my best imitation. On Wednesday, I read it multiple times for my two-year-old great niece who turned the pages and laughed at the story. Then I read “EEK! Halloween!” by Sandra Boynton: “There’s a big round moon in a dark, dark sky. The chickens are nervous. Do you know why?” So many poems are best when read aloud. And I had just the right audience. She loves to turn the pages. She is surprised at what she finds. “A pumpkin with flickering eyes . . . a mouse of enormous size . . . a wizard and a witch, and a spooky robot, too. . . Relax, silly chickens! It’s HALLOWEEN!” It makes me really happy to read books with children. The joy lingers whenever I think of it.

There are a lot of things that make me very happy.

Within the past week, I read a summary of a study carried out by scientists from the World Weather Attribution (WWA) group. They have completed a careful analysis of the ten deadliest extreme weather events of the past 20 years. Killer storms, heatwaves, and floods have killed more than 570,000 people in Europe, Africa, and Asia. The scientists have concluded that human-caused climate change made every one of these events more intense and more likely. If we keep burning oil, gas, and coal, the suffering will continue and will get worse. The deadliest event of the last two decades was the 2011 drought in Somalia which killed more than a quarter of a million people. The study was completed before more recent events such as the storms that have left dozens dead in Spain this week, or the deadly hurricanes that hit southern states in the US in the past month. Among the conclusions of the study was a warning: “With every fraction of a degree of warming, we will see more record-breaking events that push countries to the brink, no matter how prepared they are.” It is hard to keep hope alive.

There are a lot of things that make me distressed.

After a week of traveling, I got home yesterday in time for a quick walk to the beach and then I ran an errand riding my bike. I got a new bicycle this year and it has an odometer. I’ve ridden nearly 1,400 miles on that bike in the past couple of months. It felt really good to be back on the bike. I took the long route home around the bay and through the State Park. After a few hours in the car it felt good to stretch my legs and feel the wind on my face.

There are a lot of things that make me very happy.

Like other people, my life is a roller coaster of emotions from joy to sadness and back to joy again. And I know that the emotions will continue to be up and down. With the rest of my fellow citizens of the United States, I will watch as the votes are tallied. I have already heard claims, many of which are false, of cheating. I know the honesty and integrity of many election volunteers and workers. I know the polls are indicating a close contest. I know it is unlikely that we will know the results on election night and it may take many more days. I might end up with joy or distress. It could go either way.

Whatever happens, I plan to read stories to children, ride my bike and when Halloween rolls around next year, God willing, I plan to be out on my porch giving candy to the children who come up my walk. I may even start keeping a list of the things that make me very happy.