Joy and Heartache
How do you navigate between the good in life and the horror of this new administration?
This past year and into this one, we will have planned two weddings and welcomed a newborn grandson. It all happened at once for our family. We are thrilled to have so much to celebrate.
My younger daughter is getting married in June in Vermont, and we will be going for dress alterations for her and going dress shopping for me and my other daughter. The wedding will be a weekend affair with a welcome barbecue and campfire the night before, the wedding and reception the next day, and a goodbye buffet breakfast the last day. We are planning and choosing menu items and chandeliers and drapes for the barn, and it is just so much fun. Distracting. And so much fun.
My older daughter had a wedding last year and a newborn born in January. Being with that newborn with his giant breast-fed cheeks is pure joy. He is starting to coo and there is a slight smile brewing every now and then. He is 2 months old. It’s the first grandchild and we are elated. From time to time, I just exist in this world of newness and happiness.
But then I turn to the state of our democracy, civil rights, the Department of Education, the USAID agency, the measles outbreak, the avian flu. There is a world of chaos and insanity- that often finds me at 2 o’clock in the morning. There is no escape from this. What is going to happen? How do you cut a Department of Education? How do you stop funding NIH grants? How do you cut off veterans’ benefits? How do you fire long-term deserving federal workers? How do you cut environmental protections?
Will the rule of law be preserved, or not???
How do you not lose your mind?
Congrats on the the Joy! I do not have a good answer but find long walks and distraction a good thing. Hold on to that family joy! This is hard but hope the chaos will pass with time and we will find our footing again.
ReplyDeleteI have been reading about how to live in this and/and space (and Slicing a little about it, too). It is comforting to see all the JOY in your life, and know that you also hold the pain (anger/fear/frustration/keep naming all the feelings!) that come from this administration's crushing policies. Wait, let me re-write that: policies meant to crush democracy. A friend posted a Mary Oliver poem with the line "what I want in my life is... to float a little above this difficult world." Now, if Mary Oliver is giving us permission to float, I hope you will - and enjoy every moment!
ReplyDeletenewtreemom
ReplyDeleteKeep soaking up that beautiful joy.
And we have to keep participating in our government and voting. We have to stand up in the ways we can.