I Know.

I know you’re struggling.

I know that even if your basic needs are met, the state of the world is crying inside you.

And if they’re not, I know you’re afraid and exhausted, numbed, perhaps unable even to contemplate the future because the now is taking up every last bit of energy and attention you can muster.

I know you’re tired, and there is so far to go before it seems there can be hope for improvement.

If you’re in the US, or paying attention to it, or to world affairs generally, I know the impacts of that man’s irrationality and arrogance and incompetence to all that is Sacred and good and kind in the world are weighing on your mind and your mood.

I know you’re doing all the things. Your Atheopagan practices as you can manage them, your work, your relationships. Managing a household. Perhaps with extra energy poured out in activism to push back this wrongheaded and cruel moment in history.

I know.

And this post isn’t to deny what you’re facing, nor to claim I have a magic solution. This isn’t to say you need to do more. It isn’t to say what you’re experiencing and striving towards are in any way invalid.

Just that I see and feel it.

I’m experiencing it, too.

But know that these are the things the truly decent people of the world have always felt and known at times when cruelty and indifference and destruction have been on the rise.

Your grief and shock are reflections of your fundamental goodness and kindness, of the core values you carry that reject what these authoritarians are trying to shove down all our throats.

They speak well of you.

So I say, carry on. Stay strong, feed yourself in all the ways you can, make what efforts of resistance you can muster, and survive. Spread the word. Spread the love.

Better days are coming, sooner or later. We have to keep alive the ways of being that will reblossom when they do.

But it’s hard.

I know.