I seem to be doing my very own personal NaBloPoMo, may it rest in internet peace. I don’t write for weeks, and then November hits and I suddenly feel the urge to throw words against the wall. Or maybe this year it’s a way to entertain and distract myself, and maybe others along the way.
I’m struggling to do my #BestThingsToday every night. I’ve been going strong on them since I was first challenged, lo those many years ago, and rarely miss a night. Friends are doing them, friends of friends, and friends of friends of friends. They’re hard to do, but I tell my students that we can do hard things, and so I keep on keeping on. I even did a Moth-style story about doing them for a church fundraiser:
But it’s getting increasingly harder to find something good about the days. There are only so many times I can use my never-fail backup of didn’t run down the street naked and screaming. Tonight’s election results will start to trickle in roughly 2 hours from now, and it’s not an over-exaggeration for me to say I’m terrified. Frankly, I don’t know how I’m keeping my shit together. The results of the presidential election in this, Our Year of Misery 2020, will have a direct and profound impact on my family in ways previous elections never did. I’m weary, I’m burned out, I’m overwhelmed, I’m afraid, and I am tired of feeling all of the above.
Later this evening I will take a deep breath and write my #BestThingsToday. They might be little things like unseasonably warm weather and the pleasure of yoga pants when you’ve put on a solid COVID-20. But my god, I am praying that I can share the joy of a change in administration and the hope that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice” maybe took a hard left towards change.
Be safe, my friends. Be well.
Thank you. I feel the same. Terrified, overwhelmed, sad, and so many other feelings at the same time and I, too, am so very tired of feeling…. I held my shit together all day at school, and am currently making poor nutritional choices in the hopes that it might numb me a little for whatever comes next. And oh how I worry about what comes next. Here are my #BestThingsToday: 1. People who are real…who live this gifted stuff and 2E stuff… 2. Getting to sit with kids today and just be with them…they are amazing and will go on to make our world a better place. 3. Chocolate cement mixers from Culvers with M&Ms…because some days make them a requirement.
I suddenly want a chocolate cement mixer with peanut butter cups. Like, a lot a lot. Never mind the fact that it’s cold out and I have eleventy billion pounds to lose, that sounds amazing. 🙂