here is my attempt to pull myself from the ledge of despair. it's no secret that sometimes I have to fake it. the last week or so has been challenging: the world is joining in collective sadness over haiti, new terrorism threats and the economy. closer to home, we're dealing with the mass murder of eight (including three teens and a 4 year old) and the death of a toddler recently returned to his home from foster care.personally, I'm further outraged that the culture I live in doesn't have the sense to know not to run the salem gun show commercial ("exercise your second amendment rights!!!" shouted over triumphant americana music and fireworks!) as the news breaks from reporting mass death and suffering by guns. or that there is no public demand (or polite inquiry for that matter) into what happened to the baby?! (that's right, I'm looking at my own field now.) sometimes the malaise and stupidity and apathy is too much for me to bear.
so this weekend I retreated to my own little world of comfort and books and quiet conversation and music and good food. this little heaven was made even more sweet by forbidding news of any type and severely limiting public contact. it was so good.
alas, I must return to the real world today. I'm sure many of you are facing the same type of day and week. well we can't be hermits forever and, quite frankly, our world needs us. even if our smiles are not quite fully realized, if we set our intention to lighten someone else's grief by a kind word, a glimpse of brightness and thoughts of love, we can make the journey back to happy together.
