This past week has been one of the most turbulent in our country’s history. For many who are already feeling anxious due to the pandemic, recent events added an additional layer of distress.
This site is about cats, but over the last few Sundays, in addition to the usual cat photo with a quote, I’ve been offering suggestions on how to cope with the emotional fallout from the pandemic, even if that advice wasn’t always cat-centric. Your feedback has confirmed that you’re finding my ruminations helpful, so for now, I’m going to continue to share my thoughts, suggestions, and my own experience on how to cope.
However, as I contemplated the topic for this Sunday’s column, I found myself at a loss. My focus, for this site and in my life in general, has always been one of kindness, compassion, love and peace. I decided that today’s quote by Dr. Martin Luther King reflects that philosophy, and is appropriate for these challenging times.
I believe we all have a responsibility to look deep inside ourselves right now. Doing nothing is no longer an option. What shape or form doing takes will be different for each one of us. We each bring our own history, social conditioning and life experience to the table.
One thing we can all do right now, right away, is listen and learn. I started reading some of the books that have been suggested as resources for those who want to understand how they can do better. It has been an eye opening experience already, and I’ve only begun to scratch the surface.
We are living in desperate times, and neither the pandemic nor the issue of racism are things that will just go away. The only thing I know for sure is that we’re all in this together. So maybe, for now, simply choosing love over hate would be a good place to start.
