It’s easy to become maudlin these days. If we keep our eyes laser-focused, we can’t help but get overwhelmed by the never-ending stream of information that is as noxious as toxic sludge.
It’s enough to make us ill.
We have tune it out to some degree if we hope to stay sane; how could we get up in the morning and go to work or school, and work toward a future if we can’t imagine there will be one?
Yet, if we glaze over, or look away for too long, we run the risk of losing touch with our humanity and becoming numb just the same.
Summer will be upon us soon, surrounding us in a dismal soup that might feel like the inside of a pressure cooker … without an escape valve for steam, we will have to deal with an explosion rather than a delightful stew.
Of course, it can feel calming to scroll from reel to reel … watching whatever it is we’ve mindlessly ordered from the algorithm that seems to “float our boats,” as our parents might have scoffed. But by the time you realize you are watching a woman who lives alone in a big city — with no friends, and no social life — coming through the door wearing a new outfit, but doing the same things: hugging her cat, making dinner for one, and settling in for a quiet night. .. you have frittered away the better part of an hour or worse. You’ve wasted the best part of a good night’s rest.
Finding the right balance can feel as steady as a roller coaster.
What other choice is there?
Might as well practice joy.
Find it out of thin air if you need to; take a deep breath when there is a gentle breeze, let it relax you just a titch. Smile when you feel the sun on your face, close your eyes and let your shoulders drop away from where they’ve been tensing around your ears.
Might as well practice service.
Start a conversation with an elder in the grocery store; make it your mission to notice when someone else is struggling, and to tell them how you plan to help, and let them accept. It can be as insignificant as reach for a can on the top shelf or striking up a conversation that isn’t about the price of chicken.
Might as well change your mind and let those new thoughts change your mindset.
Approach something you’ve been struggling with from a different angle. Maybe even from the polar opposite view.
We don’t have to convince others of our righteousness, we just have to confirm that what we “know to be true” has veracity to back it up.
Remind ourselves that an understanding can change into a misunderstanding quietly as new facts emerge. We need to be ready to expand our thoughts, and not just retract the words.
The heat is coming back, but we can survive it by making good use of breathing room.
Be ready to inhale fire and exhale the chill.
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