Read This Ray of Hope and Pace Yourself

Take a moment to read this hopeful take on our current situation. Who knows if it's right but in these dark days, I like the idea of staying open to more optimistic points of view.

I mentioned in my last post that I am a notoriously glass-half-empty kind of person. It's one of my biggest personal failings/challenges.

I fell into a pretty dark place over the past few days. It's scary (not to mention stinky) in there with only Bannon and Trump to keep me company.

Somehow, today is better. The sun is shining after yesterday's snowstorm. I spent a few hours away from my computer cleaning my house - always a surefire mood booster for me. I plan to go for a walk later.

It helps to remind myself that I am not alone in my fear and my anxiety, nor am I alone in my deep love for this country and my commitment to upholding our democracy.

And, fortunately, stopping Bannon-Trump is not all on me. A whole lot of you are doing a pretty FABULOUS job. People are coming out, speaking up, not backing down, keeping it up.

I am particularly impressed by the protesters keeping up a constant vigil outside my Senator, Chuck Schumer's apartment in the heart of Park Slope. Some of them brought actual spines with them :)

It appears to be beginning to bear fruit - Schumer has finally begun speaking more forcefully. He's still way more of a spineless wimp than the progressive firebrand we need but it's a start. We can't all have someone like Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders as our Senator, at least not yet...

As so many people have said lately, we've got to pace ourselves. This will be a marathon, not a sprint.

To that end, I will likely stop publishing posts every day - some of you will undoubtedly be relieved not to be hearing from me quite so often...

And I am committing to spending more time unplugged from my phone and laptop. I also want to spend more time out among other people DOING things - registering people to vote, visiting members of Congress, and just generally anything that feels like it's contributing to my sanity and/or the greater good. Maybe you want/need to do the same?

As my very wise mom-in-law is always saying, we're all in this together, including the people who voted for Trump and the Republicans in Congress. She also reminded me of something MLK Jr. said, "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."

So let's try not to let Bannon and Trump (maybe we should just call them "Brump"?) drive their wedge any further into the societal cracks they've exploited to get into office. But let's also fight like hell to stop them at every step of the way.