I often feel out of place here. City dweller. Liberal. Full vaccinated. Recently boosted. I mask up because I have grandparents in the 80s I see regularly. My in-laws are in their 70s. My parents in their 60s. I have immunocompromised people in my life that I interact with daily. I choose not to spend my time with people I know who are unvaccinated because of my family situation. I see fear on both sides. Fear of the virus. Fear of government mandates. Neither side is perfect. Both sides have lunacy on them. All of this is to say, those first hugs after being fully vaccinated are moments I still cherish. My friends and I were all vaccinated. We did a ladies backpacking trip to my favorite place (Grand Canyon NP) and for the first time in months we sat in the car together an hugged the living shit out of each other. Big bear hugs that lasted forever. Desperate for human touch outside of our little bubbles we had created. I'll never forget it. We lingered. We held hands. We had deep bell laughs in our tents late at night. It was everything. It still is everything. That moment was pure JOY.
Hugs are beautiful because all the other stuff just falls away in that moment of genuine connection.
I don't want you to feel out of place here. If we were in my livingroom, sharing a tea, I would hope that none of that would matter as we spoke and learned about one another. I don't care, I really don't. You, Samantha, are more interesting to me than your position on anything. I can only write from my heart and hope that the humanity in there is more interesting to you than any position I hold on anything.
your humanity is what keeps me coming back. again, i don't always agree with your view of the world, but that's okay (and there is a lot that i do agree with). i'm not a troll. i genuinely love reading about what you have to say. some of it i have to let stew in my brain. i let it challenge my own beliefs. then i take what i need and leave what i don't - and that is okay.
i am grateful for your writing and that you share your life with us.
This post made me tear up. Someone posted today "Misery loves company, but so does Joy, and Joy throws better parties". Onward and upward from now on, I'm choosing Joy whenever I can. Thank you for sharing your stories
And sometimes, letting in the misery, heightens our awareness of the joy. Neither is wrong. A place for everything. Have you noticed that misery often accompanies fret over the past or the future? Joy lives right now, in this very moment. I just looked out my window and took a few moments to marvel at the blackened outline of trees, free of their leaves now, like black skeletons against the rising sun. Joy. Right there. 💕
Thank you for these words. As a 26 year old young woman I sometimes feel so desperate when facing what's going on, feeling like I must find every last drop of strentgh and resistance inside of me everyday. I had such a joyful and peaceful youth until now and it makes me so angry and sad to see what's happening (and also emotionally unprepared, but I simply cannot comply to these absurdities). And since it's so global, it feels like there will be nowhere to run to. I hope my partner and I manage to set up our homestead soon and be as independent as possible, and I hope they don't make this lifestyle somehow illegal. It's comforting to see that we're not alone, I hope we'll overcome this <3
Dear Anna, I can only be grateful that you have had a life, up until this point, with normalcy built in. Sometimes I think about the little ones that are growing up seeing masks instead of faces or being told that others are vectors of disease and my heart breaks.
My advice to you, not that you asked for it but I am a mom and it gets hard to shut that off sometimes, is to let go of hope and build resolves. Figure out what your principles are, identify the life you want and train your sites on that. Never mind that it's "global", that's a story to keep you disempowered. When we look at how big things are and compare our puny selves to the monster before us, it feels impossible. "Global" is how corporations want you to think so you rely on their 'bigness' to fix things. Doesn't matter. The happiest you will be is to focus on the small. What can you do? What can you bring to your community. How can you improve the world by the love and dedication you offer to one animal or one human or one acre. Do that. Piece by piece, drip by drip. You will never know the effects of your actions, doesn't matter.
I loved your advice, it resonates a lot with what I feel inside. Indeed, when I focus on the small I feel much empowered and at peace, it was a remedy to be reminded of that by you.
Amen, Hallelujah! I want to protest, I want to scream and shout, I'm so angry at what I think is so stupid!! But you are right, I need to build, to reaffirm, to plant trees in human hearts and be an example of the believers of goodness. Amen. Amen. Amen.
How absolutely lovely for you to feel those connections. I had some tears in my eyes reading this one.
Hugs and handshakes feel so damn good now don’t they?
I’m so lucky that I have some friends who don’t give a shit whether I’m vaccinated. We’ve started having little sauna parties at our place with a couple of families and it’s sooo nice. The kids go in first while it’s heating up and mess around for while, having freezing water fights outside before going back in to warm up. Learning the way of the sauna organically. And I don’t have to say how good it is to sit and talk and laugh with friends in there, and share our property and home with them. We go in for coffee and snacks afterward, towels strewn all about, feeling so relaxed and bone deep content. My friend brought her MIL last time and I messed it up by allowing myself to be baited into a covid argument. My friend didn’t tell her I wasn’t vaxxed, oops. It still ended fine, she just loves the drama, but I must remember not to let myself ruin good human connection times by letting the rona come into them.
Honestly, despite looking into winter from the most brutally wet fall here on the west coast, things feel brighter than I would have expected. The world is changed for good, and so many scary and fucked up things are being done to us in the name of… public health or control, or whatever you believe. But my families eyes are open, and we’re preparing for a future where things don’t go back to “normal”. I reject the false sense of security and normalcy being offered to the ones who submit. I’ll just keep trying to make my life here and with the lovely people I can gather to be close to me.
We’re hosting the winter gathering for our homeschool group in a couple weeks, with live music, hot drinks and a showing of the play the kids have been working on (the lorax). I’m sure I’ll see some masks, but hopefully not many, and I know it will feel good for everyone there.
I loved reading this, Karla. It is so affirming, I'm sure I speak for many, to read of the triumph of the human spirit in a time like this. I'm so glad you have people around that can see the bigger things in life.
So very true. I am standing up now. It’s time. Past time. My kids need more people in their lives, in our home, in the homes of dear ones. I’ll find them. We’ll build community together. We’ll light the joy fire and tend it all together, burning brightly.
“Apathy is insidious.” Words so true. Reading this story almost made me cry for what is happening to people worldwide. Thank you for writing this. It is a stark reminder of how much we have, and have had in the past, to be thankful for. There are blessings in the every day, even in the mundane, daily events of freedom, for which, we are now learning, should never be taken for granted.
Yes, I think we have to constantly remind ourselves of what is actually "normal". We cannot allow the overwriting of what is healthy and connecting with what is fear-based and divisive.
Thank you Tara for writing. Being fully aware of all that has happened over the last 2 years I still can't wrap my head around it. I ask myself everyday... how did we get here? This can't be. You putting it into words up on the screen let's me know a whole lot of us feel this way. We have slipped into bizarro world. Connection is the antidote.
Tears streaming down my cheeks as I read this. I can FEEL the joy of the people. I can hear the chatter of the kids. And it makes me weep at the thought of what our world appears to be…. But it’s only through the eyes of MSM. If you go talk to REAL people around you, the MSM narrative melts away and you are left with the real humanity. I am so thankful for the tribe I have. I don’t know if I would’ve made it through these “unprecedented times” without them! Thank you for your words today.
Tara, your words always touch me so deeply. Thank you for sharing. Apathy is insidious, and choosing what we would love and going for that is where the magic is.
This was a beautiful piece. Thank you for sharing. I like most people have been feeling pretty alone and trying to connect to the things that really matter. I am vaccinated, but hopefully won't be getting the booster if I can avoid it, but my position on mandates is strong and always has been. You do you and I'll do me and that should be enough. Let's not even share our choice. Let's just go back to being friends and hugging and moving on from being scared all the time. Nourish our bodies with love and good food and connections. Now if only more people would wake up.
Yes, that's all there is - friendships and hugging and connection despite our differences. My Lord, there has always been differences! Since when do these things need to cause division? We are being manipulated and it's painful to see the effect. Hugs to you, Lindsay.
I often feel out of place here. City dweller. Liberal. Full vaccinated. Recently boosted. I mask up because I have grandparents in the 80s I see regularly. My in-laws are in their 70s. My parents in their 60s. I have immunocompromised people in my life that I interact with daily. I choose not to spend my time with people I know who are unvaccinated because of my family situation. I see fear on both sides. Fear of the virus. Fear of government mandates. Neither side is perfect. Both sides have lunacy on them. All of this is to say, those first hugs after being fully vaccinated are moments I still cherish. My friends and I were all vaccinated. We did a ladies backpacking trip to my favorite place (Grand Canyon NP) and for the first time in months we sat in the car together an hugged the living shit out of each other. Big bear hugs that lasted forever. Desperate for human touch outside of our little bubbles we had created. I'll never forget it. We lingered. We held hands. We had deep bell laughs in our tents late at night. It was everything. It still is everything. That moment was pure JOY.
Hugs are beautiful because all the other stuff just falls away in that moment of genuine connection.
I don't want you to feel out of place here. If we were in my livingroom, sharing a tea, I would hope that none of that would matter as we spoke and learned about one another. I don't care, I really don't. You, Samantha, are more interesting to me than your position on anything. I can only write from my heart and hope that the humanity in there is more interesting to you than any position I hold on anything.
your humanity is what keeps me coming back. again, i don't always agree with your view of the world, but that's okay (and there is a lot that i do agree with). i'm not a troll. i genuinely love reading about what you have to say. some of it i have to let stew in my brain. i let it challenge my own beliefs. then i take what i need and leave what i don't - and that is okay.
i am grateful for your writing and that you share your life with us.
I feel you.
This post made me tear up. Someone posted today "Misery loves company, but so does Joy, and Joy throws better parties". Onward and upward from now on, I'm choosing Joy whenever I can. Thank you for sharing your stories
And sometimes, letting in the misery, heightens our awareness of the joy. Neither is wrong. A place for everything. Have you noticed that misery often accompanies fret over the past or the future? Joy lives right now, in this very moment. I just looked out my window and took a few moments to marvel at the blackened outline of trees, free of their leaves now, like black skeletons against the rising sun. Joy. Right there. 💕
JOY is everything. seek it out. every.damn.day. it exists in the smallest places and in the darkest times. it's all around us.
What a great quote!
Thank you for these words. As a 26 year old young woman I sometimes feel so desperate when facing what's going on, feeling like I must find every last drop of strentgh and resistance inside of me everyday. I had such a joyful and peaceful youth until now and it makes me so angry and sad to see what's happening (and also emotionally unprepared, but I simply cannot comply to these absurdities). And since it's so global, it feels like there will be nowhere to run to. I hope my partner and I manage to set up our homestead soon and be as independent as possible, and I hope they don't make this lifestyle somehow illegal. It's comforting to see that we're not alone, I hope we'll overcome this <3
Dear Anna, I can only be grateful that you have had a life, up until this point, with normalcy built in. Sometimes I think about the little ones that are growing up seeing masks instead of faces or being told that others are vectors of disease and my heart breaks.
My advice to you, not that you asked for it but I am a mom and it gets hard to shut that off sometimes, is to let go of hope and build resolves. Figure out what your principles are, identify the life you want and train your sites on that. Never mind that it's "global", that's a story to keep you disempowered. When we look at how big things are and compare our puny selves to the monster before us, it feels impossible. "Global" is how corporations want you to think so you rely on their 'bigness' to fix things. Doesn't matter. The happiest you will be is to focus on the small. What can you do? What can you bring to your community. How can you improve the world by the love and dedication you offer to one animal or one human or one acre. Do that. Piece by piece, drip by drip. You will never know the effects of your actions, doesn't matter.
love to you, Anna.
Dear Tara,
I loved your advice, it resonates a lot with what I feel inside. Indeed, when I focus on the small I feel much empowered and at peace, it was a remedy to be reminded of that by you.
Thank you ❤️
Amen, Hallelujah! I want to protest, I want to scream and shout, I'm so angry at what I think is so stupid!! But you are right, I need to build, to reaffirm, to plant trees in human hearts and be an example of the believers of goodness. Amen. Amen. Amen.
❤️❤️❤️
How absolutely lovely for you to feel those connections. I had some tears in my eyes reading this one.
Hugs and handshakes feel so damn good now don’t they?
I’m so lucky that I have some friends who don’t give a shit whether I’m vaccinated. We’ve started having little sauna parties at our place with a couple of families and it’s sooo nice. The kids go in first while it’s heating up and mess around for while, having freezing water fights outside before going back in to warm up. Learning the way of the sauna organically. And I don’t have to say how good it is to sit and talk and laugh with friends in there, and share our property and home with them. We go in for coffee and snacks afterward, towels strewn all about, feeling so relaxed and bone deep content. My friend brought her MIL last time and I messed it up by allowing myself to be baited into a covid argument. My friend didn’t tell her I wasn’t vaxxed, oops. It still ended fine, she just loves the drama, but I must remember not to let myself ruin good human connection times by letting the rona come into them.
Honestly, despite looking into winter from the most brutally wet fall here on the west coast, things feel brighter than I would have expected. The world is changed for good, and so many scary and fucked up things are being done to us in the name of… public health or control, or whatever you believe. But my families eyes are open, and we’re preparing for a future where things don’t go back to “normal”. I reject the false sense of security and normalcy being offered to the ones who submit. I’ll just keep trying to make my life here and with the lovely people I can gather to be close to me.
We’re hosting the winter gathering for our homeschool group in a couple weeks, with live music, hot drinks and a showing of the play the kids have been working on (the lorax). I’m sure I’ll see some masks, but hopefully not many, and I know it will feel good for everyone there.
I loved reading this, Karla. It is so affirming, I'm sure I speak for many, to read of the triumph of the human spirit in a time like this. I'm so glad you have people around that can see the bigger things in life.
As always, thank you so very much for your words.
I'm living in Portugal and we are planning "illegal" community Christmas gatherings for the children.
We will keep on creating the world we wish to see 🙏❤️
Civil disobedience is mandatory in the face of corrupt rules. ❤️❤️❤️ Enjoy your gathering.
So very true. I am standing up now. It’s time. Past time. My kids need more people in their lives, in our home, in the homes of dear ones. I’ll find them. We’ll build community together. We’ll light the joy fire and tend it all together, burning brightly.
Wonderful, Alli.💕
“Apathy is insidious.” Words so true. Reading this story almost made me cry for what is happening to people worldwide. Thank you for writing this. It is a stark reminder of how much we have, and have had in the past, to be thankful for. There are blessings in the every day, even in the mundane, daily events of freedom, for which, we are now learning, should never be taken for granted.
Yes, I think we have to constantly remind ourselves of what is actually "normal". We cannot allow the overwriting of what is healthy and connecting with what is fear-based and divisive.
Thank you Tara for writing. Being fully aware of all that has happened over the last 2 years I still can't wrap my head around it. I ask myself everyday... how did we get here? This can't be. You putting it into words up on the screen let's me know a whole lot of us feel this way. We have slipped into bizarro world. Connection is the antidote.
Tears streaming down my cheeks as I read this. I can FEEL the joy of the people. I can hear the chatter of the kids. And it makes me weep at the thought of what our world appears to be…. But it’s only through the eyes of MSM. If you go talk to REAL people around you, the MSM narrative melts away and you are left with the real humanity. I am so thankful for the tribe I have. I don’t know if I would’ve made it through these “unprecedented times” without them! Thank you for your words today.
I'm so glad you have a tribe, too, Amanda.
This made me cry a little...but in a good way 😊 Here's to upholding traditions and building new ones!
Tara, your words always touch me so deeply. Thank you for sharing. Apathy is insidious, and choosing what we would love and going for that is where the magic is.
thank you, Naomi ❤️
Always wonderful to read. I wish I was your neighbor to learn, talk and read by wood stoves. Thank you for the beautiful article.
thank you, Christine and that sounds pretty nice ❤️
This was a beautiful piece. Thank you for sharing. I like most people have been feeling pretty alone and trying to connect to the things that really matter. I am vaccinated, but hopefully won't be getting the booster if I can avoid it, but my position on mandates is strong and always has been. You do you and I'll do me and that should be enough. Let's not even share our choice. Let's just go back to being friends and hugging and moving on from being scared all the time. Nourish our bodies with love and good food and connections. Now if only more people would wake up.
Yes, that's all there is - friendships and hugging and connection despite our differences. My Lord, there has always been differences! Since when do these things need to cause division? We are being manipulated and it's painful to see the effect. Hugs to you, Lindsay.
A little perspective, Tara. That’s what this has provided me. Thank you.
Yes! Yes! Yes! 🤗