mens agitat molem

 The weather couldn’t seem to decide whether it wanted to snow or to be be sunny today.  It alternated between the two today, and given that the time changes overnight, it makes for a short night and and early morning!  Jerry has been curled on my lap most of the day, even after being evicted regularly.  He’s now moved over to Don, where he’s in a little ball dozing away!  My father has been trying to get me to come home for a long visit soon.  I’d love to, and I’d be thrilled to be able to be there, but then he point out that the number of cases and hospitalizations is still high, so it’s not worth the risk.  <sigh>

Is it just me, or are others overwhelmed by the state of the world right now?  We’ve got wall to wall bad news… beginning with wars: Ukraine, the ongoing Syrian civil war, and several others creating refugees in huge numbers.  There are various natural disasters, from floods to earthquakes to mudslides and drought.  There’s the aftermath of other disasters that are still being cleared, and so on.  There is a pandemic that is still affecting us, and the resurgence of diseases that we’d hoped were eradicated but thanks to mass human stupidity they’re reappearing.  And, of course, there are the epidemics of mass human stupidity that are causing all manner of other problems in the world.  I don’t know about you, but I’m finding all of these to be very stressful.  I can’t do anything about any of them, and I don’t like feeling so helpless.  What can I do about any of these?  How do I stop them from affecting the people I love?  Is there anything that I can realistically do to stop the “wars and rumours of war”?  If I were an evangelical Christian, I’d probably look on these as signs of the end of times, but I’m not.  My religious belief doesn’t seek out signs of the end and try to retrofit them to prophecy.  For the same reason I don’t attribute a disaster to be a punishment for sin.  However, there are so many things right now that it’s hard to find moments of calm and balance.  I pray for all of those who are suffering now, and that they will be comforted.  But from my safe location, I feel a bit hypocritical to be getting excited about a hockey game (for the record, I’m never excited about a hockey game, but you get my drift!)  It also feels silly to listen to news items of people complaining about the price of airline tickets for holidays when the last news story was about bombings and death.  Or stories about “fun ways to have an exciting vacation on a budget.”  Maybe I’m cranky because I haven’t been on a plane in YEARS and I’m delayed again?

OK, that’s it for me feeling sorry for myself.  I can’t fix the wars or the floods or famines or fires or ANY of the big issues in the world.  The most that I can do is to try to make a small happy place and provide cheer and happiness for my family and friends.  The cheer is a little limited right now because of the bigger issues, but it’s still there, and I’ll do my best to keep it up!  Good night!