Safety and Kindness: We Can Have Both

Fall is coming rapidly, and some days feel like it. Others remind us it’s still summer. But some other things haven’t changed, either. Covid-19 rages on and another black man has been shot by police. But many people are going about their lives as if nothing is happening. I am going through the motions for the most part; I limit my trips into the world to where I think I’m safe, I wear my mask, I wash my hands consistently and often. But it’s as if I’m holding my breath, waiting for something to change. I’m unmotivated to act on anything, yet restless to do something. I’m tired in many ways, and I think it’s going to last for a while. Has anyone else been here? If so, what have you done to motivate yourself again, to find a goal or a reason to keep moving forward, and what are you moving forward toward?

Some schools are opening up full force, others are going virtual, and some are trying a hybrid of the two methods. It remains to be seen how any and all of these ways of education will work and if the virus will become even more virulent in the in-person scenarios. It feels like chaos to me, but I have to admire those who are pressing on and trying to make their lives “normal,” whatever that means to them.

Protests and violence rage around the country, and I get it, maybe not the violence, but the anger, the frustration, the pain. Change must come. We must listen to people of color; we must loosen the stranglehold we have on them and allow them to be real citizens of this country. It’s way past time. It’s the naysayers we must leave behind. They are the ones we must push down or bring around to the realities of how we want our country to be. I hope we are the majority and can get this done.

Maybe this is what change is like; chaotic, unsettled, frightening, angry, painful. I think it must take great courage to go from here to there. Am I up to it? I don’t know. I hope so, and I hope I find my place in the stream moving forward to act and promote that change.

Change

Fear rages just as the violence escalates.
I am not afraid of change
but what it may take to get there.

I admire those who have courage,
who press on
regardless of the consequences.

I am insulated from the fray;
it has not touched me yet,
but I think it must

before I see the realities
of what is to come,
what must come.

I must move out of my comfort zone
into the unknown,
reach out for what lies beyond

my experience,
my knowledge,
my understanding.

Will I be able to do it?
Will I have courage
and the heart to persist?

© 2020 Dorothy A Joslyn

How do you feel about current events and what is happening in our country? How are you coping?

Where do you fall on the courage line? What are you doing, or want to do, to bring our country into what must be our next steps? What do you think those steps are?

Take a few moments to think about the people who have been devastated by the hurricanes and fires and send them good vibes, as well as any other tangible help you can give. I actually think our positive vibrations can help; how about you?