Paper in the Wind

I’ve spent the better part of this morning thinking, wondering, wordsmithing what to write for this week’s edition of “Tools for the Journey.” Thoughts swirl around my head like torn slips of paper in the wind. I grab at them in hopes of finding the ‘right words.’ One slip of paper reads “Spring festivals and the importance of ritual,” another reads “toxic individualism and mutual aide,” yet another reads “Parenting with too few spoons” (those last two seem to have both been torn from a larger sheet of paper). However, none of these ideas are doing much for me.

I am often told that I am gifted, thanked for all that I do, and praised for my creativity. But, here is the flipside of that coin – because my creativity is the result of long periods of processing, I can and often do, find myself with little to say for long stretches of time. This is one of those times.

When these occur, part of me wishes to cry out like Charles Darwin, who in a 1861 letter to Charles Lyell wrote, “I am very poorly today & very stupid & hate everybody & everything.” However, I’ve been working on giving myself as much grace as I extend to others. So, let me simply conclude with this quote from Sharon Salzberg, “You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.”