what's the point?

Every so often N or I get in a mood where we feel no motivation to do anything.  It's the kind of very mild situational depression that I think many of us experience from time to time...like when an all-consuming project ends, or when something wonderful in one's life goes sour, or some other change recently occurred and you're floundering for a hold on life.  When this happens to one of us, we communicate it to the other by moaning, "What's the point?" with a healthy helping of humorous dramatic flare. 

I experienced one of these moods recently, which is odd because I've been fairly busy.  Usually the remedy for me is to just stay occupied with whatever nonsense I can conjure until I find my hold again.  But I've had no need for conjuring of late: we went up to NY last weekend to see friends that were in town (the High Line is amazing, btw); two separate jump-starts occurred with my work this week, so that's kept me busy; my garden has needed a bit more work than usual since many plants are starting to bloom and I needed proper supports in place (we harvested the first lettuce this weekend--yum!); I started work on a quilting project; I visited with another friend that was in town; I made strawberry freezer jam with a yet another friend; and N and I went to the opera in Philly last night.  Lots of friends and lots of busy-time.

Admittedly, I don't feel the apathetic mood currently (the opera kind of cured it--N decided to buy tickets a few hours before the show, so it was wonderfully spontaneous and just what I needed), but it occurred over parts of the last week and it made me ponder the causes of such funks.  In particular, I want to contrast the funk mood of this past week with a meditative experience I had about two weeks ago: I had recently read about wandering thoughts during meditation and how one should acknowledge them and let them pass.  One night I tried this and it worked phenomenally.  I was already relatively calm to begin with, but I had some elements of stress in my life--deadlines and the like.  When a distracting idea came, I more-or-less said to myself, "yes, that is a thought" and centered again on the focus thought of my meditation.  The acknowledgement made it so much easier to let the distractions pass since I was no longer focused on trying to forget them.  The point of mediation in my own life was made clearer...it was a chance to relax from stressful thoughts by allowing them to pass through rather than sit in the mind.

The "what's the point?" funk is on the opposite end of the spectrum; stressful thoughts, if they exist, are pushed away easily in the flood of apathy.  Stress is almost desirable and the mood is sometimes cured by artificially created stress.  However, I wonder if meditation can help cure these funks; if you create a space for calmness to pool, you may feel increased drive in other areas.  Next time the apathetic mood comes, I might have to try meditation and see what happens.  That is, if I feel like there's a point to even trying.