Talk to anyone these days and the same words are said. "I am tired", "so ready to return to normal".
We aren't physically tired as much as mentally drained. My oh my what a year we have just lived.
Right here I could insert a list of obstacles we have overcome since February 2020 as a collective nation, but I don't have to. You know. You were there with us. Together. It doesn't feel like together, but guess what? we have made our way through it as one people.
We might have had different opinions on how to handle the virus, how to vote, how to prepare for hurricane season, but we are brothers and sisters of this nation and we all handled it our own way. I love that. I truly love that we are different. We have so much to offer as individual people with our own colors and opinions and tastes. Gosh, it's delicious.
The differences spice up things and makes the flavors meld together and the outcome is a colorful, lovely world that only our maker could arrange.
What a I mourn is our respect for each other.
No longer can we sit at the dinner table and talk politics without it getting loud or personal or creating a great divide. It seems as if our opinions are not matching by as little as one or two words or ideas, it's a deep cut is slow to scab over, if it even does.
When did this happen? tolerance is lost. Patience and empathy and listening have all but diminished.
Our personal opinions are so strong that there isn't room for a difference.
The leadership in our nation for the past few decades has been watered down. It's grown organically out of greed and power and a simple solution to this problem is nowhere in site.
Or is it?
Can we come together in our immediate relationships with our close circles and have it ripple outward? It's possible but would be hard behind screens. I have personally been attacked on social media by family members for having a difference of opinion. It's too easy to take out frustrations on such a platform.
I make it a point to keep anger and rudeness at bay, just for my own well being. Self preservation if you will, it's the only way to keep balance within-to make sure what we "let in" is quality. Not the trash or spewing garbage.
So while I am totally unsure of where our paths might be leading us to, I do know that we are going there together. Like it or not. Whether we are holding hands on the path or are in a single file line, we are on this journey one and all.
Tomorrow is a day without mistakes. I hope we can tread lightly, love each other and give each other space and respect. We owe that to each other.
