We are moving through the Great Un-Doing. It doesn't matter if you're here in the United States or Europe. What was once done, complete, settled is being undone.
As human beings, we naturally feel some amount of grief. Why? Because we loved deeply.
Did you know that the first known graves were those of children? The oldest human remains show us the depth of our capacity to love.
Losing Cassie and Dottie
It's always been difficult for me to talk about our dogs Cassie and Dottie. They were in our lives for six months before I mentioned them to anyone.
Why? Because I wasn't sure they would survive. When they arrived, they were emaciated, feral, and more than a little wild.
Dottie had neurological issues that we were never able to track down, even after Animal Welfare was called because a CT scan of her body revealed how much she had been abused..
Yet, at least once a month, she would "reset" -- forget her name, potty training, where she was on the planet, or nearly everything else. This went on until she was five and returned the last six months of her life.
Cassie was a force of nature. She was smart and knew it. She ran the household by waking us up, telling us to get to work, and basically bossing all of us -- even after joint surgeries.
These fragile nearly 100 pound creatures clung to life for each other and for us.
And then they were gone. Cassie in May and Dottie in October.
The house was silent. All of the people -- veterinarian, physical therapist, groomer -- were out of our lives.
It was just us sitting in our silent home.
As an aside, our neighbors hated them. They were loud, too big, too boisterous, too black, and more than anything simply too dogly. They were thrilled when the dogs were gone.
The Great Un-Doing is a time of grief
We ache for the things that matter to us.
Reading and libraries are met with stringent and nonsensical book bans. Our neighbors, friends, and family are being scooped up and shuttled off so that the wealthy can make more money. Corruption is as ubiquitous as the number of politicians named in the Epstein files..
Some of us get sad.
Some of us are enraged.
Many of us care -- likely more than we would have ever guessed that we could.
How do we get through this time without succumbing to high blood pressure and collapsing in puddles of sorrow?
That's the question, right?
For me, sometimes, I focus on learning. I keep up with my learning goal of getting to a place where I understand Dark Matter while continuing my courses in Ancient Egypt. I swim. I read medical journals and Scientific American every day. I give myself time to meditate and write in journals so that I know what I think.
Other times, I grump around, mope, feel sad, and get angry.
One thing is for sure -- I refuse to give up the next four years of my life to this idiocy. We will need people like you and me to envision what we will build when everything is undone.
Nearly every creature and plant on this planet experience something akin to grief.
How do you experience your grief? What are you doing to help move the grief and rage? What doesn't work for you?
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