I’ve reached day two of a self-imposed moratorium on reading any news feeds.  It seems necessary to cut off totally, as is often the case when determined to admit to and deal with an addiction.

For one, it is too frustrating to continually be made aware of the many tragedies of now, in that the onslaught of bad is so rarely accompanied by ideas and actions that reach for solutions.  I honestly believe we have everything we need to be able to heal the land and our connections to one another.  But positive and proactive efforts to: connect rural and urban communities through tourist and small business friendly regional interdependence; build partnerships to expand wildlife corridors; and innovative ways to advance alternative energy have apparently all, alas, been deemed unworthy of our nationwide attention as determined by click rates and advertising revenue.

Also, I end up too ashamed of myself when in rehashing a typical day I am forced to admit to the inordinate amount of time spent scrolling this screen.  I know I am looking for glimpses of hope.  And that a disease or injury(as currently affecting our civic fabric) must be fully and closely understood in order for healing to commence.

But, all those hours reading the news of the world at large is a terrible, and again I say shameful, distraction from the actual sources of hope and healing that are here at hand, present in life actually lived.

So, I will read no news, and trust that I will hear about anything truly crucial.  In those freed up daily hours, I can hold hands with and stroke the hair and faces of my sweet children, and take longer walks, and make art works that give me something of my day that I can show to my husband, and talk to or at least give a greeting smile to everyone I encounter.

We all have our particular addictions that are parcel to the difficulties of these days.  One of the best things we can do to heal the whole is to face them, forgive ourselves, and fill those spaces with what we wish could always be.  What’s happening in the world?  I will look around and see.