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| The moon over the sunrise. A gift! |
In 2020, I learned that the world is not as safe as I may have thought. The virus, the political arena, the arguments and disagreements, - all added up to make me anxious. I was not alone.
2021 was not a whole lot better, with violence in our capital and the return of mass shootings. (Even shooters stayed home during the pandemic's first year.)
2022 - more of the same. My disillusionment was becoming a world view.
I dropped out of social media. I went to ground. And I told myself that the world was an unsettled, unsettling place.
Over and over again, I warned myself about real and imagined dangers. Over and over again, I congratulated myself on wisely hunkering down, laying low, disengaging.
Now, I am teaching a short "stories-we-tell" workshop to the children of my worship group. What a wake-up call!
The world is complicated! The world is full of flawed and wonderful people, intriguing living things, beautiful rocks and trees, (awful traffic, annoying noises, too - let's be honest).
Still, there is light -
Light - every morning, even if the skies are gray. If I tell myself
that the world is full of danger, I will treat everything and everyone
as an enemy. Do I want to live in a world like that? Does that make me
happy? Um, no.
If my conversation is ONLY full of the way people irritate me, or close calls with disaster, or wrongs that I have suffered, YUCK! How can I bear getting up each day?
Somewhere in our suffering, we have to find birdsong, or cloud dances, or funny hats, or smiles.
The Attitude Doctors tell us to find three things to be grateful about each day. Make it easy on yourself. Be grateful for ONE thing! Just one. But be grateful for that one thing several times during the day. Maybe in a day or two, you will notice another thing to be grateful about.
Here are some suggestions:
Hot toast with your favorite spread. Just the smell is a gift.
Birds in puddles - they are seriously silly.
Roofs!
Warm socks.
Air.
The fact that things will change - hopefully for the better.
Can you walk? Be grateful. Can you see? Find interesting things to see.
You can change scary stories to ones of possibilities, tales of comfort, the history of growth.
Time to crawl out of the bunker. You can do it.
(Right now, I am grateful for radiators and tea kettles.)
Really good post Karen and good to see you posting again! I think most of us have felt this way the last few years. One thing I would add to your wonderful list is finding small ways to give of yourself to make others feel loved. For me, it's about sending cards, quilts, and comics to folks in need. Also, it's important to take a break from the news and concentrate on the good that we can accomplish. I love you and miss you! Hugs!
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