Today feels like everyone’s holding their breath. We’re in one of those floaty limbos of the unknown. This time we’re together, but we all go through them at other times alone or in smaller groups. One of those times when you do what you can. And then you wait. It can be incredibly stressful, especially when our minds are capable of generating so many possible futures.
What to do in the meantime? There’s no magic solution. There will be times when the emotions burst through whatever coping strategies we try. At that point, it’s a matter of breathing while the wave washes over until it eases a little. (It will ease a little, at least for a moment. Pain comes in waves.)
I’ve been riding through my own waves. Here are some of the things that have helped me in between them.
Having a visible effect on the world, however small. This weekend, this took the form of a massive cooking and baking spree. It kept my hands and mind busy, filled my fridge with easy meals for future stressful days, and gave me a sense of being able to make change somewhere. (At least in my kitchen.) I also did some tidying and cleaning that had quick and satisfying results.
Trying something new. Being from an area that doesn’t grow a lot of apples, I had no idea what boiled cider was. But a tempting cookie recipe showed up in my email that used it (thanks King Arthur Baking!). So off I went on a deep dive into a project, filling the room with a bright apple fragrance and fascinating me with the alchemy of reducing a jug of apple cider to something more like honey. This is a long process. Results: delicious.
Changing my media inputs. Don’t get me wrong, I do keep up with the news. But I can’t consume news for hours and hours. In between, I’ve been listening to actual radio stations and rediscovering how much music can soothe me. There’s also something to knowing there’s a human being out there playing these songs in real time. Feels like gentle company. (I’ve been using the TuneIn radio app and listening to co-op and public radio music stations that don’t have ads, like KOOP and KUTX in Austin, TX, and KXT in Dallas. You can also listen on many radio station websites.)
I’ve also been playing with the Libby library app on my tablet to read magazines. Magazines take less concentration than books, have lots of pictures to look at, and give me a bit of the same feeling I get from scrolling social media. Since the library magazines are free, I can easily leaf through as many as I like on whatever topics catch my eye. There’s apparently a magazine for just about anything these days!
Remembering it’s okay to not be okay. You don’t have to be perfect, and you really don’t have to be perfect right now. Everything is a lot right now (and has been for a while). We’ll muddle our way through, one wave at a time.