I Beg You.

As I rarely do, I read “the news” this morning.
Headlines mostly, still getting engaged in a few articles.

And I wonder. I wonder how all this lands in the hearts and nervous systems of those of us who are feeling alone, scared, exhausted by months and months of a steady regimen of time-release horror stories. Stories of fear, of threat.

When does the exhale come, and where does it come from?

How much can one take before their mental health shreds away in chunks of hopelessness?

Winter is arriving in many parts of the world. Grayness, cold and a harder daily personal landscape to navigate.

These headlines are tragically toxic. They are engineered to make their readers feel helpless and paralyzed. Weak. Isolated and easy to tumble. They promote division and mistrust of each other at a time when we need the shelter of each other the most.

“It is in the shelter of each other that the people live.” Padraig O Tuama.

I beg you.

As the weather gets colder and if your heart is fragile and not yet replenished by the summer’s sun: seek nurturing food for your soul. Repaint your living room, buy flowers for your table every week, discover new music, move your body, call a friend.

Find people who make you smile and who feel emotionally safe. Let go of the ones who don’t. For now, at least.

Become honest about the difference between what you can change or affect, and what you cannot.

Wean yourself from the pull to “know everything” and its twin lie that knowing will give you power.

It seems to me that this is an emergency situation. That there is a poison in the well.

Please please remember that we have a choice as to whether we drink from it or not - and how much and when.

Our lives might depend on that choice.