I know I can say this every
week nowadays, but this week, especially here in the US- whew! It has been a lot. There are so many words to say, and not say. These are the ones that are here today. I have been told to both take a clear political stand and not be political at all. I will never hit the right tone for everyone, but this is my tone today.
Shall we?
1. Saturday morning I woke up and opened Instagram. I don't usually scroll in bed, especially first thing in the morning, but this day I did. The very first post was the video of Alex Pretti being murdered in the street in Minneapolis. Beyond horrifying. The second post was an Amazon add for jeans that will flatten my stomach and lift my butt.
2. The whiplash was intense. It was as if the algorithmic overlords were saying "Don't look at the lawless terrorizing and murder, the real problem is your flabby belly and drooping ass. Give us money, we will fix that for you."
3. No, I don't think you will. Setting aside the cultural obsession with the perfectly bodied woman (and the false promises being sold through a pair of jeans), my money and life force are so much better spent helping us survive a county in a free fall into the deeper authoritarianism.
So what do you do
when it feels like it is too much to care as deeply as you do?
Care anyway. Feel anyway.
Let yourself feel the intensity of these times and let that intensity flow into your next steps forward. If it is too much (and it is ok for it to be too much), reach out to someone you trust or a professional. Rage to the trees.
Release your tears into the river. Move your body to your favorite music. Look at beautiful art. Make art. Share it. Build a shrine to hold what is sacred. Not to escape the reality of life but to connect with the whole of it.
I've been spending time in one of my favorite spots. Smelling the bay, listening to the creek, connecting to the heart of life.
4.
If you want to talk, let me know. We can set up a time to connect. No obligation, no sales, just a space to hear how you are and offer what support
I can. I don't have any magical fixes. I am not a mental health professional, an activist or expert in resistance or social justice. I'll never have the right qualifications for everyone. But I know what I am good at. I know where my gifts and skills are. This is something I can do.
Extra thing.
What most people don't realize, because the work is quiet and not at all flashy, is that being at home in your own emotional and empathic sensitivity is some of the most radical liberation work there is. Why do I say this? Because someone who knows their own emotional language and how to honor and tend the range and intensity of their emotional world, they cannot have have their emotions hijacked by another person, ideology, or movement.
We don't just want to think for ourselves. We want to feel for yourselves. In times where there is more and more effort being put into controlling what we see, think, and feel (hello again algorithmic overlords and adjacent human players), to be sovereign in our own emotions and responses is a fundamental key to liberation. Not the only key, but an essential one.
