Hope

Don’t tell me it will be alright.

Don’t tell me this doesn’t affect my life.

Don’t tell me not to be mad.

Don’t tell me not to find peace.

When I see a problem, I’m compelled, like water flowing downstream, to try to fix it. I see dirty dishes, I want to clean them. I hear a crying child, I want to hug it.  I see a massive problem in society, I want to put it back to rights…

So now is just like every other day in my life in some way… I’ve always been agonized by the screaming of oppressed humanity.  The fact that it’s a little closer to home right now doesn’t change the fact that humans are really horrible to each other a lot of the time. (See:The Inquisition, WWI, WWII, etc, etc, etc).

I see all these images of hate speech in public all of a sudden… and I feel more tension in public a lot of the time… but I have to fight my instinctive reaction to curl up in a ball and hide at home. I can’t do that. I can’t quiver with fear that someone in my family will be attacked for being black or brown or female or otherwise different.  I can’t. I have to do something about it.

But what can I do? Well I have to cling to hope. I have to hold tight to the love in my life and the belief I’ve always held, that we are ALL family. The only way I know to change the world is by being better in my own self. So I am selfish, selfishly clinging to the possible positives that may come. That keeps me painting and singing and smiling at strangers… I’m no expert at being a human, but that’s some small thing I can do.

My smile doesn’t mean I’m blind or stupid or unhurt. It means I’m keeping the faith and trying to live the example I’d like to see reflected in all the eyes I meet.

Onward and upward, dear friends

❤

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