I know there are some things that should not return to the way they were, but I had a pretty good thing going. I’d like to get back to that. But what if I can’t?

I’ve avoided putting forward a new theme or series on this blog. I don’t feel like I have anything particularly cohesive to say. It seems, though, that a theme is emerging. And it’s called Giving Myself a Freaking Break.

I could beat myself up for not just tackling it, but we’re in a damn pandemic and I’m not going to do that. We’re all doing the best we can with what we’ve got.

We’re watching as our world changes around us, for good and bad, and there’s not much we can do about it. What we can do, most of us have already done.

I don’t know about you, but whew…things are tough here. I know spring is coming. (I have the packets of seeds to prove it!) But it’s not here yet.

I’m told that, traditionally, Halloween is the time of year when the reality is stretched thin. When things feel precarious. I certainly feel on the edge.

I’ve never lived in a place where the frost wasn’t looming in the future, offering a hard stop to the season. A hard stop to the hard work.

Every choice is less than perfect. Every choice is a compromise.

There is no “way life goes” anymore. In many ways, that’s freeing. So many more possibilities. But it’s also terrifying.

One of the great struggles of our time is trying to figure out the balance of being informed with being overwhelmed.

The nice thing about having no idea what I’m doing is that I haven’t learned what is impossible yet.

I believe that with each small decision to be good to each other, we add a little more fuel to a fire that will keep us all warm.

I’m curious about other people’s lives because if I move through this one, beautiful life I have without learning, I’m going to hurt people.

When I fail to be curious, I assume people are intentionally hurtful, or careless, or failing to do the very clear correct next thing. (Of course I know what the correct next thing is).

Our good intentions mean nothing if we’re not willing to do the work to make sure that we don’t hurt other people while trying to help them.

We could all stop ourselves when we think, “But that doesn’t make sense” and then force ourselves to ask, “How could that make sense?”

Sometimes there are more important things than checking off all the boxes. And the most important part of that is not justifying yourself, not wasting a minute somehow trying to make it ok.

We can have all the right opinions, all the right words, and all the right plans for change but if we do not show up in the small things, nothing will ever happen.

I have limits and if I don’t respect those, I’m going to end up dead in the water. No power, no direction, just floating along wherever the current takes me.

It was as if we were all learning through trial and error, but I had four or five other people’s errors to learn from.