The struggle is real! I feel the frustration/overwhelm/distress that your words convey intensely. I am 1 of 8 billion, sometimes unable to breathe and remain connected to meaning. Hope is a lifeline. Hope is the heel of Achilles. Action is kinetic (f)utility, but it could make a difference somewhere for someone. And through it all, words are not to be underestimated. Please keep wording your way forward.
I’ve been thinking a lot about my ancestors too. It wasn’t so long ago that the fled Eastern Europe for similar reasons to risk starting a new life in a new land. For years, I’ve been feeling a stirring in my soul for a need to leave the land I was raised in. But because of some combination of guilt of privilege and grief of processing…the chaos in modern times, I think it’s taken me longer than expected to make the leap.
I’m right there with you in finding balance in hope and realism while staying aware and the right kind of involved for me. We’re figuring it all out along the way ❤️
It helps put things into perspective, doesn’t it? I appreciate your thoughts on this, and it’s good to hear from people who are also sorting through the mess of these times.
Thank you, Angela. I resonate with the feeling of personal impotence against the magnitude of what we're facing today, and yet, we're here and have a role to play. This part stood out: "for the love of all that is good and holy, tend to your grief and trauma, and do not let the internet hijack your grief of the world you wish to see by falling for grifters online and in person. Turbulent times create grifter vacuums and good people get sucked up and never the same again." The cynic within wishes those who seemingly need to work on their grief and trauma most would do so. Then again, I'm constantly reminded we're only truly able to change ourselves, and that effect may ripple out to others. Still, I echo this statement to anyone willing to listen--"for the love of all that is good and holy, tend to your grief and trauma."
"Each time I go to work on a piece of writing, I am overcome with its insignificance and my own."
Now that made me stop and think about the act of writing—or any creative act really. Loved this piece and hearing more about your own family's history...and all the ways that history repeats itself when we stop paying attention to the past.
Thank you, and thank goodness for creative friends who get the struggle and joy of sharing our art and tender thoughts but also want to crawl into a hole sometimes.
The struggle is real! I feel the frustration/overwhelm/distress that your words convey intensely. I am 1 of 8 billion, sometimes unable to breathe and remain connected to meaning. Hope is a lifeline. Hope is the heel of Achilles. Action is kinetic (f)utility, but it could make a difference somewhere for someone. And through it all, words are not to be underestimated. Please keep wording your way forward.
Hope, action and writing through it all🤍
I’ve been thinking a lot about my ancestors too. It wasn’t so long ago that the fled Eastern Europe for similar reasons to risk starting a new life in a new land. For years, I’ve been feeling a stirring in my soul for a need to leave the land I was raised in. But because of some combination of guilt of privilege and grief of processing…the chaos in modern times, I think it’s taken me longer than expected to make the leap.
I’m right there with you in finding balance in hope and realism while staying aware and the right kind of involved for me. We’re figuring it all out along the way ❤️
It helps put things into perspective, doesn’t it? I appreciate your thoughts on this, and it’s good to hear from people who are also sorting through the mess of these times.
Thank you, Angela. I resonate with the feeling of personal impotence against the magnitude of what we're facing today, and yet, we're here and have a role to play. This part stood out: "for the love of all that is good and holy, tend to your grief and trauma, and do not let the internet hijack your grief of the world you wish to see by falling for grifters online and in person. Turbulent times create grifter vacuums and good people get sucked up and never the same again." The cynic within wishes those who seemingly need to work on their grief and trauma most would do so. Then again, I'm constantly reminded we're only truly able to change ourselves, and that effect may ripple out to others. Still, I echo this statement to anyone willing to listen--"for the love of all that is good and holy, tend to your grief and trauma."
Thank you for your thoughtful reflection. What a tender time we are living in 🪽
"Each time I go to work on a piece of writing, I am overcome with its insignificance and my own."
Now that made me stop and think about the act of writing—or any creative act really. Loved this piece and hearing more about your own family's history...and all the ways that history repeats itself when we stop paying attention to the past.
Thank you, and thank goodness for creative friends who get the struggle and joy of sharing our art and tender thoughts but also want to crawl into a hole sometimes.