Take Care of

Hello friends,

How is your heart today?

I coughed up a poem this morning, about the grief and beauty of this world. The breeze through branches. The horrors of war. I posted it on social media with a video clip of red arbutus berries, moving with the soft rainy air.

That’s the state of my heart. 

I’ve always been tender hearted, though as a child, I learned to mask it with toughness, because toughness was the only way to feel a modicum of safety in my world. Toughness was also the only source of visible power that I saw around me. 

But that didn’t stop me from bursting into tears every time I read a newspaper. When I was nineteen, I had to stop reading the news for awhile. When I was younger still, I would memorize terrible facts and figures so I could let people know that my tender feelings were reasonable reactions to the state of the world.

I no longer memorize facts about the horrors of the world. I don’t need to anymore.

My idealism has always been one of the most realistic, and rational responses that I have. The so-called realistic people are the ones who never seem to care when the tender among us are trampled into dust. 

So, what do I do? These days, I write words. I snap photographs. I engage in acts of mutual aid and community support. I do what I can to help relieve suffering where I perceive it. And suffering, like beauty, never seems to end.

Helping to relieve suffering in the world is the only thing that makes sense to me. It is the only way to avoid despair. 

We each relieve suffering in our own ways: We turn our heartbreak into action. We hold up a candle in the night. We create beauty. We offer food or shelter or a shoulder. We combat injustice together. We raise our voices. We listen. We move. 

We remember: Every time we breathe, we connect with the whole world.

Best wishes — Thorn

Stories are a wonderful balm for my heart. I’m part of another StoryBundle, this one featuring ten collections of wintertime short stories, perfect for reading in line at the market, or curled up with a cup of tea. My Solstice collection, A Flame for Yuletide, is included. This ebook bundle is “pay what you can.”

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