Connected

It's hard not to see what the world has become. Angry people everywhere you turn, each feeling righteous in their anger. Trauma and depression can go hand in hand. The feelings of helplessness or hopelessness can lead to one or the other.

I'm here, in my tree-hugger hippy persona way, today to say it doesn't have to be this way. How we feel does directly impact how we perceive our surroundings and our interactions with our world.

I finally finished giving, selling, and throwing the rest of the memories away. I drove through a snowstorm and talked to some precious friends about what I had accomplished. I have lost some things in this fire. But as I got closer to home, and the tears dried, I was alone in my car; I realized something amazing. The most important things that I have with me that will never ever leave me cannot be washed away, torn out of a book, or burned to the ground.

I have boxed up and tried to hang on to so many things through the years. I have had many fears and hang-ups. As I drove and talked to one friend I have had for a couple of decades and a friend I met a month ago, I realized the people are the most precious. I thumbed back through my life, starting from my childhood. I called my brother to let him know that I made it home, and he shared a couple of childhood memories. I realized that even those visits to aunts and uncles with their hugs placed fingerprints on my soul. And every single year, with each and every person who touched my life, they touched me and