Thoughts on Our Chaotic Times
As demonstrations continue and tensions rise, the fear that has gripped us the past several months from a pandemic has become even more challenging to manage.
How did we get here? How do we protect ourselves and our children’s psyche from the collective pain and suffering that has become all too familiar? Violence in schools, violence on our streets, violence in politics. There are many social issues that need to be addressed, we are a community and a country in tremendous pain. That is the absolute reality.
Yet, as a necessity to manage all that pain, it's imperative to appreciate that there is actually more good than bad.
The focus of social media and news outlets is amplify that worst of what's happening. But, there's much more going on. We need to wake up. We need to appreciate that there is enough hate out there that can tip the scales from hope to grief and from peace to fear if that is all we focus on. Hate cannot serve to be our guide. We need to educate ourselves about things we fear so that knowledge outweighs the unknown. We need to stand up and support any cause we feel passionate about, because that support helps us heal and makes us feel part of a broader community.
This is not the time to be passive.
We need to teach our children to question what inherently doesn’t sit well inside our hearts. We need to talk to them about unity, appreciating differences; both the physical and in regards to differing opinions. Just because someone might have a different though or opinion, doesn’t make them wrong. Teach your family to sit with the challenges of agreeing to disagreeing and respecting there is space for many opinions. That is part of educating ourselves.
And in an effort to get some good news into life, as a family, look up articles that show human resilience. There are many! Look to your community and see where your family's passions fit a need. Work a plan on how to best provide the support of where that passion lies. You can have multiple areas you want to support if members of your family are split on what they feel passionate about. And if all else fails, check out SGN (Some good news) with John Krasinski.