How are you feeling? Filled with hope and joy and inspiration? Or are you confused and lost and disappointed?
If the former, good on you! Go out and spread joy amongst the masses!
If the latter, welcome to Spring 2019. Here is your complementary box of tissues.
It’s gray and dreary, major cities are flooding, and our bodies don’t know whether to be too hot or too cold. We want to be outside planting the garden and setting out our tomatoes, but it keeps freezing overnight, so . . . we have no idea when it’s going to be safe.
Ah. Safe. That’s a word that says a mouthful right there.
Safe. Lots of us aren’t feeling safe right now. How many more innocents is it going to take to get some action on the major problem we seem to have in the US with g-u-n-s?
I don’t have any solutions, I’m just asking the damn question because the more we talk about it and try to normalize not being okay with our kids being slaughtered and our neighbors being shot down while they are communing with God, the more likely we’ll be to force the issue to the surface and get something done. Fortunately, the NRA seems to be unraveling at a startling rate, so we got that goin’ for us.
Clarification – I don’t care if you own guns as long as you are responsible and careful and don’t let your toddler play with them. Guns are things, no different from most other things. Energy is energy, it’s neither good nor bad, but can be used for either depending on the hands it falls into. When it comes to guns, ignorance is not bliss. It’s disaster waiting to happen. Get educated about how to be safe if you are gonna own one of these things.
But back to the point: instead of Spring being this overwhelmingly lovely and joyful time of energy rising and life ecstatically rebirthing and love blooming everywhere you look, we have way too much confusion, depression and loss. We have ennui.
And that is something we can take care of. Care, another word that says a mouthful.
Mouthful, yet another key word. Fill the mouth with water and good clean food. Stay away from the processed junk and the “comfort foods,” because they cause way more distress than they offer comfort. I know, it’s hard to do. I have to simply not buy any of it, just keep it out of the house, because crunchy goodness is too hard for me to resist sometimes. So if you want a snack at my house, you’re having an apple or a banana or some dates. Okay, yes, you may dip them in almond butter . . . jeeze . . .
Back to water – if you are not well hydrated, you won’t sleep as well, you’ll feel hungry even when you aren’t, you’ll be more prone to brain fog and forgetfulness, and you won’t have the energy you need to make it through the day. Take your weight, divide in half, and drink that much water in ounces throughout the day. Water, or if you must, pure coconut water. Not soda or coffee or tea or any of the fancy and truly awful energy drinks. Not even kombucha. Drink water. Water is sacred and essential.
The body is made up of mostly water. We’re like fleshy plants. We have to keep replenishing our water supply. What happens when you don’t water your house plants for weeks? They don’t do so good. Humans are no different. We can go 2-4 days, depending on the person, without water before we die of dehydration. Go get a drink as soon as you finish reading this. Water keeps your cells healthy and allows your waste management systems to get rid of toxins and junk that you don’t need. Think of it this way: you can’t flush a toilet without water, so how are you supposed to flush wastes out of your body unless you have something to flush with?
But I think the most important thing that we can be doing is gathering, finding each other, being with like-minded people and helping each other hope. Women’s circles, drum circles, chanting groups, amateur roller derby teams, bowling leagues, salsa dancing groups, writers groups . . . I could make a list that wouldn’t quit. There are so many ways to find your Vibe-Tribe. And great gosh a’mighty does it feel good when you do. There’s this thing called Google . . . and a thing called social media (31 rather awful flavors, but it was in fact designed to bring people together) which you can use to search for activities in your area.
Spring didn’t exactly spring this year. It kinda . . . sploiked (which is totally how a comic book would describe it). We can spring anyway.