Thread by @BkPhilanthropy

The news of Iran’s retaliation is everything we have dreaded. We fear even worse news. How do we function with this emotional weight?

I’m going to share my take, which I hope will spread comfort & perspective.

#DemCast
1/

Do your usual living tonight & tomorrow. Maybe even eat on the good china & drink the fine wine. Verbalize your gratitudes. Live life fully.

We have every reason to be grateful for this minute, which is a level of gratitude we would do well to realize daily.

2/

For any one of us, tomorrow may change our life trajectory far more quickly than anything happening in the National or global stage may cause.

3/

I learned this lesson at least twice. Once when widowed young. Later when leaving the hospital where tests would eventually tell us whether my daughter was terminal, we were broadsided by a city dump truck. It hit right behind my daughter’s seat. We both walked unharmed.
4/

If that truck had hit differently, my daughter would have been killed a week before we were to find out the fate of her disease. We used it as a reminder to celebrate our days, especially when life looks dark, for none us knows what our fate holds, until it’s truly imminent.

5/

Fill yourself up and fill those around you. We might need to draw deeply in our wells soon, emptying out later. So fill up every chance you get.

Do you see how eating on the good china is an innoculation for the hard moments? It is. Trust me.

6/

Empathize with those who suffer, but be very clear that their pain is not your pain, except figuratively.

7/

Fight for justice for others, while holding as a gratitude that their injustice is not your injustice. Mature, clear-eyed empathy, yes; blurred, boundaryless emotional misery is not that.
8/

Embrace empathy while keeping your emotional well filled. Channel your energy into intentional, focused action to fuel your focus and energy to do the hard work required to change the world. There are truly helpful actions you can spend your energy and $$ on.
9/

Actions: call your MOCs or used @resistbot to write them. March. Talk to family, friends and neighbors to catalyze the change needed to change our political landscape to remove Trump & vote blue. Register every young person you know and talk with them about voting Dem.
10/

Your circle needs you to be focused and more committed than ever to democracy, and to also feel the fierceness of your love for them. You need to take care of yourself, for yourself, but also because your circle and democracy need you.
/end

It is sometimes an act of courage to live. Be courageous.