A dog doesn’t worry about next week. It just wants to know if you’re coming outside. Some days, that’s the right question.

A dog’s entire question is whether you are coming outside, which happens to be the only part of the situation it can affect. Most of what runs through your head on a bad day is next week, where you have no traction at all. Narrowing to the next hour is not denial and it is not a cure either, it is a way of putting attention somewhere it can reach.

On a day like that, choose the next thing only: this meal, this walk, this message. Let next week be next week’s problem.