….words from November right after the election I posted to IG
Whelp 🤷🏻♀️ what.a.week. A sucker punch indeed.
Here’s what I know to do, so far as I’ve experienced and unfortunately remember from other times… looking at you 1980s…(60s/70s/90s….)
1. Hydrate with water constantly
2. Rest well
3. Get out in nature often
4. Pay attention -not to the LOUD hate -but WHO is quiet, and not saying a thing, and not out of fear of reprisals, out of fear to say the hate they agree with.. to your face, and DISTANCE yourself.
5. Do not try to argue on these internets
6. Find community where you live
7. Make community
8. Break bread with people
9. Support public schools
10. Support teachers
11. Support Public Libraries
12. Support Librarians
13. Read
14. Buy local when you can
15. Support Black Women
16. Support the LGBTQIA+
17. Support the planet
18. Don’t be an antisemite
19. Speak up for our silenced sisters in Afghanistan & Iran & Iraq & Sudan & Tigray & Ethiopia, my heart: our sisters held hostage by H@m@s that need to be home and our sisters trying to feed their children in Gaza. All wars need to end. Women and children are always the chattel.
20. Hate is contagious, do not catch it.
21. Love with wild abandon.
22. Coffee Coffee Coffee
23. Support journalism that is not propaganda
24. Support Journalist
25. Listen
26. Prepare
27. Vote everytime you are allowed to vote. Do not sit your ass out. FFS.
PLANT WILDFLOWERS & PLANT GARDENS
This list is not exhaustive. I’ve not slept in days so… it may not be worded correctly.
✌🏻🕯️♥️
Hope is a choice. Hope is a noun. Hope is a verb. Hope.
Also I’m screaming into the abyss
Here is some more from a person I respect and is my thoughts as well and there are some repeats…
Don’t let them define you.
I am committing to not allowing hostile people to turn me into a hostile person. I refuse to allow hateful people to turn me into a hateful person. I refuse to allow controlling people to turn me into a controlling person. Instead, I choose to respond to hostility, hate, and control, by pursuing compassion, justice, and peace. In responding this way, I hope hostility, hate, and control are overcome by love in others.
Don’t waste time on those who refuse to listen.
I have spent far too much time talking with people who think I’m ignorant and wrong in my beliefs. I believed for a long time that if they could just hear me out or just see things from what I’ve learned and my experience, they might see things just a little bit differently. Yet this is rarely, if ever, productive. Often, what happens is I expel all my mental and emotional energy on someone who was never going to respect me no matter what I said, which caused my well-being and my work to suffer. So, I am now going to choose to save my energy for more productive and life-giving interactions.
Pay more attention to peacemakers
Because I spent so much time talking with those who were saying negative things to me, I would naturally miss opportunities with those who were reaching out to me seeking peace and growth just like I am. So I am committing to prioritize them from here on out and giving them my first and best attention.
Prioritize my health.
I am committing to continue making time for exercise, meditation, prayer, mindfulness, therapy, eating right, and getting enough sleep. I am also committing to spending as much time in nature as I can. I have learned that these practices are essential for me to be able to show up fully for my family and for my work.
Disciplined media diet
I am committing to putting boundaries around my media consumption. With social media being a big part of my ministry, I am going to create strategic times during the work week when I can post and interact with people online. During these times, though, I will keep scrolling to a minimum. I have found that a steady diet of headlines and posts that come from social media have a negative impact on my state of mind. So I am choosing to use social media for the purpose of productive connection with others and put boundaries around the ways it can negatively impact my state of mind. I am also committing to finding my news from sources other than social media, like the radio, newspapers, peer-reviewed articles, and local trusted journalists.
Local Action
Being involved in my community. I believe all change begins locally and I want to be more involved in making that change happen.
Never stop speaking the truth, no matter how futile it seems.
HOPE is resistance ..
There is more. Watch your inner circle.
PEACE.
