I know I am not the only one who has felt like the last week has been at least a year long. Each day and sometime multiple times a day it seem like a headline worse than the last pops up on our screens. Headlines full of things that seem unimaginable and yet are unfortunately very real. It is overwhelming, anxiety producing, and scary. And this is  just the first week. 

The next four years are going to be a marathon and not a sprint. We are going to continue daily to receive news that will shake us to our core and shake the very foundation of beliefs we hold about our country and humanity as a whole. I firmly believe that to not only survive the current season in which we live, but to thrive in it, we have to take care of ourselves. Self-care is an act of resistance in a world that often bases our worth of how much we are producing and in a world where rest has come to mean to many lazy, unmotivated, and unengaged. We have to take care of ourselves and I know it is a privilege to be able to be worried about taking care of myself. For those in marginalized communities who are under direct attack from the new administration self care and getting away from all of it is not possible. 

Take care of you. Four simple words that will look different for each and every one of us. There will be those who working day and night to protect and stand with and for the marginalized in our communities is self care. There will be those who self care looks like strict boundaries on what they watch, listen to, talk about, and allow into their world. There will be those who marching and shouting at the top of their lungs at the daily injustices occurring will fill their soul. And there will be those that staying home and binge watching a feel good show fills their reality. Whatever fills your cup and brings you joy, do that. Do it as often as you can because even in this time of great uncertainty, fear, and anxiety we have to find and cultivate joy and gratitude. 

You may have read that last sentence and think I am nuts or completely out of touch with the current happenings in our world to suggest that we find and cultivate joy in this season, but I assure you I am not. I am aware of the daily horrors that have occurred and are likely to keep occurring, but I am also aware that one can not make it through the things that rock us to our core without finding and cultivating joy and gratitude.  One cannot survive what feels like a long dark night without looking for the light no matter how small and dim that light might seem. There may be days its easy for you to find and cultivate joy and gratitude and there may be other days where it feels like an exercise in futility, but I assure you they are always there. They are present in the melody the birds sing each dawn to greet another new day. They are present  in the smile of a stranger you pass in a store. They are present in the laughter of children. They are present in the beautiful notes and words of music. They are present in the people you love. They are present in the community spaces you build and are a part of. 

There is no law, executive order, and/or administration that can take away joy and gratitude nor the light they bring. I know it seems like the next four years are going to be impossibly dark and I am not going to practice toxic positivity and tell you everything is going to be ok because I don’t know that. In fact, I know that for many people the next four years will be anything but ok. However, in spite of it all, I know that joy and gratitude will be there. They will be there as a beacon of light shining in the darkness. If you do nothing else to take care of yourself  in the days ahead just set the intention each day to find them, notice them and connect with them, especially on the days where it feels like they are impossible to find and their light is barely burning. The light of joy and gratitude never burns out regardless of how overwhelming the darkness may get. They always burn. Tangible beacons of resistance and resilience in the darkest of times.