All week my heart has been breaking–and, really, it should be. Every news headline is hard and sad and a call for international reckoning. It’s these kind of times when we not only shouldn’t but really can’t shut the door on the rain outside our own lives. And in my head I keep hearing this Stevie song because yes o yes: “Love’s in need of love today.”
Most of the time I don’t put my mishegos online, at least before it’s been digested and lessons have been learned. I will try not to do so here. But suffice it to say it’s not been my standard mermaid summer thus far–more like an unhappy summer of reckoning– and chances are good the next six weeks also will prove challenging. I don’t relish that others struggle too but it helps to know I’m not the only one in the thickets from time to time. So this morning, as I tackle an obstacle that makes my blood run cold and my guts turn to lead, I send bolstering energy, white light, bruja magic, deep breaths, blueberry pie, and love, yes, love to all of us, not just me. It feels bigger and stronger, somehow. I keep flashing on that Becket quote: “I can’t go on. I’ll go on.” And thinking: People do it all the time.
The older I get, the less interested I am in spending time with people who haven’t weathered serious failure or loss or opposition yet. Choosing to navigate hardship with certitude, with grace, with open eyes and open heart is not only what introduces us to true adulthood but to our best selves. And selfish as I am, people’s best selves are the ones I want to know. As Benjamin Franklin, of whom I’m ridiculously fond, said: “You will know failure. Continue to reach out.” As an unnamed beau, of whom I was once ridiculously fond, said: “It’s all part of growing up.”
All week my heart has been breaking–and, really, it should be. Every news headline is hard and sad and a call for international reckoning. It’s these kind of times when we not only shouldn’t but really can’t shut the door on the rain outside our own lives. And in my head I keep hearing this Stevie song because yes o yes: “Love’s in need of love today.”
Most of the time I don’t put my mishegos online, at least before it’s been digested and lessons have been learned. I will try not to do so here. But suffice it to say it’s not been my standard mermaid summer thus far–more like an unhappy summer of reckoning– and chances are good the next six weeks also will prove challenging. I don’t relish that others struggle too but it helps to know I’m not the only one in the thickets from time to time. So this morning, as I tackle an obstacle that makes my blood run cold and my guts turn to lead, I send bolstering energy, white light, bruja magic, deep breaths, blueberry pie, and love, yes, love to all of us, not just me. It feels bigger and stronger, somehow. I keep flashing on that Becket quote: “I can’t go on. I’ll go on.” And thinking: People do it all the time.
The older I get, the less interested I am in spending time with people who haven’t weathered serious failure or loss or opposition yet. Choosing to navigate hardship with certitude, with grace, with open eyes and open heart is not only what introduces us to true adulthood but to our best selves. And selfish as I am, people’s best selves are the ones I want to know. As Benjamin Franklin, of whom I’m ridiculously fond, said: “You will know failure. Continue to reach out.” As an unnamed beau, of whom I was once ridiculously fond, said: “It’s all part of growing up.”