Getting Dirty
Calming the brain swirlies from the past 24 hours.
Like most people engaged in politics and culture, I spent most of Sunday following then reactions to the announcement that President Joe Biden had decided to drop out of the presidential race and then endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris.
And like many who are on the socials and/or consider themselves public thinkers or theologians, I, too, got sucked in. Interestingly, my place of choice was Threads. I shared, reposted, got challenged, tried to be kind, got frustrated, got pissed off, and found some great people. If you dove in there is certainly a lot of a lot going on there: disappointment, judgment, jubilation, and crapping all over one another — friends and foes alike.
Good times.
All day, my head was swimming and swirling with ideas, oh so many ideas. I have so many thoughts about what is happening right now about Harris, Gaza, Policing, California, etc, but this is not what this post is about. For good or bad, I weighed in on a few things, but at the end of the day, I simply couldn’t anymore. My further contributions were not going to be helpful.
And then Monday arrived and my head was still bag of cats.
After taking an unintentional mid-day two-hour nap (most def my body telling my brain to calm the eff down), I woke up and immediately shifted back into chaotic creator mode. I looked at all the pithy and cutting voice notes I had left myself over the past 12 hours and began to try to put together something. The brain swirlies continued to swirl, but the Spirit was having none of it.
Frustrated with my lack of word production, I went outside and put my hands in some dirt. The political punditry would have to wait for another day. Yeah, I know the world is on pins and needles :-)
Now if you know me, you know that I am not a nature guy per se — or at all. I appreciate the nature and am always game for a beach or glamping trip, but I simply do not need to spend extended periods of time in the nature where the nature gets on you and then nature stays on you: hiking, backpacking, etc. That said, I am way into the nature-adjacent activity of houseplants. I have so many, but again that is a story for another day.
So today, during the hottest day of the week, I broke my afternoon writing schedule *gasp* and went out and got my hands dirty. I did some repotting and composting work. Sure, I made some content, but it got me out of my head. With sweat dripping and dirt on my hands and face, I was able to breathe a bit from the last frenzied few hours. The process was just what I needed to reset.
Like so many, an immense amount of privilege drips from everything I do these days, but at the same time, I feel called to continuously engage in what I hope is meaningful. Folks have offered me their support and energy, so they deserve honest and intentionally curated content. It will not always be good, but I can’t be word salad tossed against a wall. Resisting the urge to try to be first with some probably-not-original status update or think piece is something that I am working on. Too often today, we react, punch, and jab without much thought, and while that might feel good and sometimes maybe even powerful, I think most of us would do well to take a deeper breath first. Like most commitments worth our time and energy, the work of justice and compassion is filled with immediacy and perseverance. Sometimes, I need reminding which one is needed and when. I suppose we all do.
So it’s cool if you jumped right in with zeal and vigor and it’s fine if you were/are too paralyzed even to comment (there is grace enough for all), but the important thing is to find ways to keep your body, mind, and spirit in the kind of shape that they need to be for you to make an impact over the long haul. It will look different for all of us, but at some point, we will all get overwhelmed and need to put our hands in the dirt.
May you find your dirt when you need it.
