Marprilmayjunelyostemberuary
wait, what am I doing here... again?
Welcome to the 310th day of Marprilmayjunelyostemberuary.
Of course, depending on when you went into lockdown, it may be day 387 or 295, but at this point — who the hell is counting, anyway? Regardless of what day it is, we have more or less come back around to where we began and we are only (very) slightly better off. Generally speaking, as a whole, we are still in the same chaotic predicament. Many of us think we have adjusted.
We have not.
Don’t ever for a second believe the placating lie that society has adjusted to the collective trauma we are enduring. It’s just shock. We are all in shock. I hope that we don’t all come out of this shock at the same time, because it will be an even larger mess than where we are right now. Have you ever seen someone in the process of coming to terms with a terrible car wreck, where they barely walk away and everyone else didn’t?
Yeah. It’s going to be a lot like that.
Slow. Deleterious. Haunting. Those of us who have weathered trauma in the past may be able to act as unwilling guides to soothe those nearest to us. The greater ones amongst us will take up a medium to express survival in formats the masses can consume and attempt to emulate. But — by and large — we are in for the long haul as varying segments of the global population come into their awareness in waves.
Waves that will crash upon the shores of consciousness to drag us into waters where we sink or swim or grab hold onto anyone, anything that can keep us afloat as we suck salty air into burning lungs. Tumbling out of control between rocky outcrops and hoping we don’t make contact before we’re ready. From the very beginning, our dreams tapped into the undercurrent of fear and uncertainty.
Take your time. Give yourself space. Eat in the bathtub and don’t worry about your hair. Stop checking social media. Turn off the news. Get some fresh air. When this is all over — and eventually, it will be — you’ll look back in wonder at your own humanity as it struggled, clinging to the things you identified as normal. How your mind desperately overinflated the importance of trivial objects. The panic-buying induced by your reptilian brain as it responded to loss of control. Finding comfort in basic life skills we had previously discarded for instant gratification.
Healing from trauma is a complex process that requires us to relearn living, one day at a time. Fortunately for us, pop culture finally got something right. We are in this together. And we will recover at different stages, sometimes pulling others up; other times, needing a helping hand ourselves.
Support group: Earth. Meeting time: Now. Starting immediately.
Be kind. Be messy. Be ok with crying. Just be.
