Today I want to say that I am overwhelmingly glad to be home with my daughters. We are listening to carols, even though. We are baking cookies, even though. My mind went crazy this morning, bouncing around every direction, rustling up its own fear and anger until some wise part of me said, enough. Enough, and I signed out of all social media. I stopped clicking over to NPR and HuffPo. Enough, enough. The worst has happened, I have shed my tears, that is enough. To make injustice the only measure of our attention is to praise the Devil, writes Jack Gilbert, and to me this is truth. When I write about not succumbing to the madness, I mean not making war in my own soul. Not giving myself over to fear or anger or hate. Not allowing myself to sink into dismay. I believe this is how to heal the world, and so I will do what I can. I will turn myself away, again and again, from anger and despair. I slipped up, of course I did. I have opinions on what should be done, in weak moments I broadcast them but in my heart I knew this was wrong for me. Not wrong for everyone--social change needs its mouthpiece--but wrong for me. If I contributed to your agitation, I am sorry. I do not want to agitate. I want to find the stillness in my soul and stay there. Dwell there, because I can't help anybody by dwelling in sorrow and despair. If I succumb to fear, to anger, to madness, I will only go on to plant that pain in others and who knows what sparks that might ignite? Today I stayed home with my daughters. Ayla is sick and sleeping on the couch, Indy is bright-eyed in the kitchen, in my apron strings, hugging me close. The trees are lit, the fire burns, the sorrow is deep but so too is this pleasure. Today we love each other and take joy in our lives. Tomorrow I will do my Christmas shopping and be grateful for my life and allow whatever joy might come.
Even though.
*Thanks again to Elizabeth Aquino for posting the Jack Gilbert poem.
Utter perfection. And the tears that prick at my eyes reading this are the sweet ones. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThe world continues to turn, even though... xoxo
ReplyDeleteI agree so strongly about the importance of where we turn out attention, and what kind of power that sheds in the world. "Even though..." You are a mother above all else, and continuing to water their rots and surround them with love is perfect.
ReplyDeleteI know. It's hard not to think about it, to put it aside, to not be sorrowful. But we can't let it consume us. Have you read One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp? She touches on this very subject. I have the following sentences underlined in her book: "Rejecting joy to stand in solidarity with the suffering doesn't rescue the suffering. The converse does. The brave who focus on all things good and all things beautiful and all things true, even in the small, who give thanks for it and discover joy even in the here and now, they are the change agents who bring fullest Light to all the world."
ReplyDelete"And the world spins madly on" so sayeth the Weepies. And you. What a lovely post, Brittany.
ReplyDeleteYes.
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