COVID Rest and Come together

Hello, my starlings! We haven’t posted for a minute. But we are OK! Angel just needed some time to reseed, even the moon wanes. And that’s OK! A star that burns too hot will burn itself out very quickly. Sustained burn requires rest. Just like chemical processing, low and slow is the way to go! It doesn’t mean you are weak. Glowing embers are not necessarily the end of a fire. Keep them glowing and when you’re ready, a little kindling is all you need to spark back up! You can burn brighter than ever! 

What we are going through is traumatic AF. Even those who enjoy time alone are beginning to lose heart. The cracks are forming, our fortitude is being tested. But you are not alone. Our collective soul is here. We are all here, in this time. It’s OK to feel it, every bit of it. Your feelings, your fears are valid. You are valid! 

While we are all going through this, it is important to recognize that even though we are, as a species, experiencing that same situation that we are both brought together and torn apart. Your apocalypse may look very different from your neighbor’s. 

We are seeing some reactions that we may not like or even fear from our fellow man. Folx of all kinds are doing what they can to survive and reconcile themselves in this situation. We all seek to protect ourselves and our families. Remember that. When you see humans doing things. Anger, fear, sadness, mania, attack… we tend to view these actions as some conscious decision on the human’s part. We forget all the times when we, ourselves have lost control. We don’t like to admit that we do it. Your ego very much wants to remember itself as always right. Always in control. But, I promise you… you have not always been your higher self. And that is OK! Beings of light though we may be, your light is driving around in a meat sac animal that has needs and instincts.

We vilify these folx for having these very real emotions. We then return their out lashing with our own. And yes, your feelings are valid and you are so very allowed to have them, but we will all be better off when more of us learn to see and recognize that the people that are doing things we don’t like are, in fact, people. The truth is, you never know what someone has been through today, this week, this year. You cannot understand what is driving the action… unless you take the time to find out.

And since we’re here, for example…

I worked the front line at Meijer for a number of years. When You work in service (I have always been in service) long enough, and if you are observant, you will be a party to the human condition in some genuine ways. One Saturday, busy AF, we had these huge bags of chicken wings on ad, like 40% off. Well, as you can expect, by Saturday, the supply was running thin. As I was walking past produce, this woman runs up to me in utter hysterics. All of it. Flailing her hands in my face, yelling at me. We were out of wings and I was the first person in the telltale red polo she saw when she discovered this fact. On the surface, this looks like the age-old story of some jerk face bitch being an ass-hat to someone in service. But y’all, she was crying. About chicken wings. I took a deep breath, flashed her my time-tested Angel smile and I said, “You seem like you really need those wings. What’s going on? How can I help?”. She was literally astonished that my reply was not defensive or dismissive. She took a cue from me and had a breath. Then she launched into her godawful morning which included the funeral of her cousin, only like, 34. And how gramma was supposed to be cooking (this a Baptist funeral, there must be a ton of food), but she wasn’t feeling well and trying to be the tuff ol’ lady, hadn’t told anyone that she hadn’t been able to shop or cook until like an hour ago. And here this woman was, trying to do her best to pick this shit up and run it, with no prep time… and we were outta fuckin wings! I got this, yo! I called up two baggers, split her list, and sent them running. Then I took my new buddy over to meat, I told meat manager Pat, that we NEEDED to find this woman a ton of wings on the cheap right fuckin now. And, you know what, we found some. They weren’t on ad, but with a little system override magic from yours truly we made that happen. Then I took her up front, sat her on a bench with a frozen Coke and some tissue, while we rang her all up. And sent her out to her car with her bagger escort to get it all loaded. This took me a grand total of 20 minutes. And in that 20 minutes, she stopped shaking; she was no longer alone, she was seen. When all was said and done, we had turned would-be breakroom stories of that crazy bitch and how awful she was into how much fun we had helping that distraught lady with her authentic trauma. My baggers beamed all day. We worked as a team to help someone. I’d like to think I taught them something that stuck with them. That when folx are not being their best selves, a lot of times all it takes is some compassionate action by one or a few to help us all through it. Because if I hadn’t acted the way I did, at that moment, who knows how far that would have gone. How much yelling, anger, and bullshit was saved? Cuz I know you’ve all seen it when people lose their shit in a store. It could have been soooo bad.  

Takeaway: Slow down, take a step back, breathe.

We need to temper our wants to deal with people who are behaving in an unacceptable manner for our community with the need to take care of us all. Retribution is not always the best action. That knee jerk reaction to punish is just that. Too fast, too hard, and often not what the situation genuinely calls for. More often than not, we find that the best action is understanding and help. 

So that’s your choice, Star. Are you going to react out of control? Bashing things apart? There’s a reason nuclear fission is dangerous. Breaking bonds if difficult to control. Explosions are common. Or are you going to coalesce? Fusion is safer. Use your light, your gravity to bring us together and create something stronger, beautiful, and new?