Find the Sun Spot

This morning, my friend Erika wrote beautifully about collective trauma and collective grief. Please click here to read her words and then come back- I’ll be here. It certainly feels like we have had our fair share of both just in the span of the past few weeks- never mind the past few years.

Importantly, Erika also touched on the concept of collective healing. We have to take moments of it. We have to find the sun spot like our slightly neurotic cat Poe does each day. If we don’t… well then I am afraid we will feel collective trauma and grief forever and that just is not acceptable.

I have started a list of figurative ‘sun spots’.

And I invite you to add to this list even if it’s just one silly thing…

  • I believe that the shooting in Uvalde this week is the straw that broke the camel’s back. The news cycle has not moved on. My social media feeds have not moved on. We are focused. We will demand change.

  • I was reminded that people who want common sense gun reform are in the majority. We are being held hostage under minority rule. This will not last.

  • Just last week, I wrote about the need to speak the truth about how we are feeling. We feel better when we share the good and the bad. That sure has happened this week. We aren’t fine but we are talking about it and that helps.

  • This weekend marks the unofficial start of summer. This is not a small thing.

  • With the college year over and dance intensive season yet to begin, Caroline and Katherine are both at home. I am learning to embrace these times as they become fewer and fewer.

  • I discovered Glen Rock Roasters and now I make coffee-shop-tasting-coffee at our house. I am enjoying an amazing cup of coffee right now… Sort of like summer- this may read like a small thing but it is not.

  • I am finally out of a reading rut. I have started and put down more books than I can count recently but I actually finished two good ones this week. The Sweet Hereafter and Songs of a Captive Bird.

  • We had grilled steak for dinner last night and grilled steak is my favorite.

  • And we had ice cream from VanDyke’s.

  • I am sitting outside now as I write and outside makes everything better.

  • The Lincoln Lawyer on Netflix is a good distraction.

Ok… your turn. What are your sun spots this week? Big or small. Let’s create a giant list…

Stacey LOSCALZO