how much more can we take

 

I decided to surrender and post another political rant. After all, I'm not the kind to march in the streets, and I've already shared my thoughts, in writing, with every member of Congress and with Governor Newsom. Still, we're all being urged to do something to support the survival of our democracy. And what I do is write.

As a health care provider, I have a special interest in the changes that have been made to what has proven to be a safe and effective program of immunization against dangerous and preventable infections for many years. We are already witnessing a resurgence of these diseases. Children are suffering, even dying, because of it. 

I'm also not happy that the food pyramid has been turned upside down.

On a personal note, I am especially concerned about the threatened incursion into Greenland as I am planning to visit Norway in March, and I prefer not to be regarded as the enemy when I get there. That is, if the airspace stays open.

I could go on.

Here's the thing. I am reluctant to add my thoughts to the mix for several reasons. First, IMO, we've heard enough. We know all we need to know about who Trump is and what we can expect from him. We don't, or shouldn't, need to hear any more political commentary, any more lofty speeches, or probing interviews to know what kind of trouble we're in. To know how dangerous Trump and his minions are. How deranged, delusional, and yes, even demented he may be. It's time to stop the analysis, investigation, and opinion peddling that add little insight to the conversation anymore.

What we need now is action! 

...because every day, we are confronted with another report of unimaginable, indeed intolerable, cruelty. Bigotry. Lying. Cheating. Ignorance. Arrogance. Greed. Indifference. Stupidity. All of which are a threat to our democracy, to our neighbors, and to each of us individually.

Instead of holding Trump accountable...a futile effort...now is the time to hold Congress accountable. To call our senators and representatives out for their failure to take action. For their indifference. For their ineptitude. For abandoning their moral and ethical duty to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. For bowing down and out at Trump's bidding.

How much more can we take?

If marching in the streets unites us and you can get out there, you should GO! If we can flood our congressmen and women with calls to act with sanity and courage, let's do it. If expressing our opinion changes one person's mind, or moves one person to action, or gives any of us hope, we should all be speaking up. Sending emails. Calling. Conversing. Writing. We should be doing whatever we can...peacefully, courageously, and deliberately...to hold Congress accountable.

"The world will not be destroyed

by those who do evil,

but by those who watch them

without doing anything."

~Albert Einstein~

jan

when things get to be just too much...

One of this week's walks...

This past week was difficult for many of us as we tried to process the cold-blooded murder of Renee Nicole Good, an American citizen who was exercising her lawful and constitutional right to protest against ICE, peacefully, in the streets of Minneapolis on Wednesday.

When I woke up on Wednesday morning, my first thought was:

"I wish there would be some good news today...

for a change."

Then I poured myself a cup of good strong coffee, and I turned on the news. The rest is history...and it always will be.

I was trying to process that tragedy when my phone rang. It was my cousin calling to tell me she had been diagnosed with breast cancer over the holidays. Her mastectomy was scheduled for the next day.

Then, my brother called to say that his wife was on the way to the ED for evaluation of some neurological symptoms that have persisted since she suffered a minor concussion a few weeks ago. Her doctors wanted to rule out a stroke or a slow bleed.

Next in line was my daughter calling because she was worried about her great big gorgeous Great Dane. He wasn't eating. He was unusually clingy. He was also having tremors. He appeared to be in pain, but the vet couldn't fit him in that day. They'd been through something like this before...when her last Dane developed bone cancer...so that was worrisome.

Then we got the news about the couple in Portland, Oregon who were shot by federal agents during a traffic stop.

This is hard. It's hard to process the violence, pain, suffering, injustice, and heartache that seem to have become predictable themes in our collective experience, and as well, in our personal lives. We feel a combination of disbelief, grief, anger, and worst of all, despair. It can stop us in our tracks.

My question for you is this: What do you do when things get to be just too much? What do you do to take care of yourself at times like these? To calm yourself. To strengthen yourself. To catch a glimmer of hope, or joy, or peace.

I walk. It's a five-mile round trip that takes me out into the woods and along a little stream. This week, thankfully, the weather cooperated. The skies cleared, and the sun came out with unseasonable warmth. Even the wind quieted down. Twelve deer greeted me along the way. People waved hello.

It helped.

I hope you can tap into your own wellspring of beauty, wonder, peace, and possibility. A moment of joy. A reason for hope. 

Remember:

"Not everything that is faced

can be changed,

but nothing can be changed 

until it is faced."

~James Baldwin~

jan

 

"release your majestic mind, embrace your untamed spirit, and break free from captivity" in 2026

I'm not a fan of making New Year's Resolutions. It's a time-consuming process that smacks of self-discipline, grim determination, and Herculean effort...and it often ends in failure. So, last year, I turned my attention to wishful thinking. This has a more optimistic ring to it. It suggests we believe...or hope...that the new year holds limitless possibility for us...the possibility that good will come to us, that our burdens will be lifted, that help is available. It enables us to envision a world at peace, to imagine an end to poverty and hunger, to hope for an elusive cure, to pray for an end to suffering. 

Unfortunately, that didn't seem to work too well, either...given the fact that the shift toward world peace, compassion, and caring I was wishing for never materialized. Instead, we witnessed an escalation in greed, cruelty, and bigotry that fed into war, poverty, and pain. Fear. Dread. Despair.

So...what now? 

If 2025 was a difficult year for you...because of illness or loss, because of hunger or homelessness, because of loneliness, or failure, or rejection, or simply because you stay abreast of the news...how will you navigate 2026? Because, trust me, we will be tested. We will witness heartbreaking cruelty toward immigrant families and children. We will see an uptick in preventable diseases affecting our children. The LGTBQ+ community will suffer. We will feel the pain of racism, misogyny, injustice, and greed. Of war. We already feel it. And we will feel helpless to change it. We already do.

Which is why I believe that self-care will be more important than ever in the New Year. 

"Self-care is a divine responsibility."

~Danielle LaPorte~

This may include a few traditional resolutions like exercising more, improving your diet, or balancing your budget...but it involves so much more. Here is some advice for the New Year from people I admire and respect:

"Be good to yourself. 

If you don't take care of your body, where will you live?"

~Kobi Yamada~

❄

"Do more of what makes you happy."

~attribution unknown~

❄

"Tell the negative committee that meets inside your head

to sit down and shut up."

~Ann Bradford~

❄

"Release your majestic mind,

embrace your untamed spirit,

break free from captivity..."

~Melanie Muller~

❄

"Everybody should be quiet

near a little stream and listen."

~Christopher Robin~

❄

"Tell your story

with your whole heart."

~Brene Brown~

❄

"Keep close to Nature's heart...

and break clear away once in a while,

and climb a mountain or spend a week

in the woods.

Wash your spirit clean."

~John Muir~

❄

 

"Walk as if you are kissing the earth

with your feet."

~Thich Nhat Hanh~

❄

"Never stop questioning."

~Albert Einstein~

❄

That's just for starters. Above all, remember this:

"The bad news is: a lot can change in a year.

The good news is: a lot can change in a year."

~attribution unknown~

❄

In the meantime, my New Year's wish for you is for deep peace, however you imagine it, whatever it takes for you to embrace a few moments of it, whomever you choose to share it with. 

How will you take care of yourself and those you love in the New Year?

Remember that those who are difficult to love need it, too.

They probably need it the most.

jan

 

"whisper words of wisdom" on Christmas day

"Always be prepared

for something amazing to happen."

~Melanie Perkins~

Wishing everyone pure joy and boundless optimism this Christmas.

If yours can't be merry this year, then may it at least be white.

If you don't care for snow, may it simply be...enough.

~www.tcpalm.com~

Words of wisdom:

"Let it be."

~John Lennon~

jan

welcoming winter

By now, my family and friends are probably tired of hearing me wish them a Merry White Christmas. To them a snowy Christmas means that guests may not make it in time for the festivities. The kids might not get home. It means getting snarled up in traffic as they scramble to pick up the last gift or two. They may not make it to the grocery store.

www.townandcountryshuffle.com

 

I get it...but still, I love winter and I would give anything for a white Christmas. Why?

*

"It is the hope of the crystal,

the architect of the flake,

the fire of the frost,

the soul of the sunbeam.

This crisp winter air is full of it."

~John Burroughs~

 



*

"The woods are lovely, dark and deep..."

~Robert Frost~

 

 

*

"When I no longer thrill to the first snow of the season.

I'll know I'm growing old."

~Lady Bird Johnson~

 

 

*

"I prefer winter and fall--

when you can feel the bone structure of the landscape--

the loneliness of it--

the dead feeling of winter.

Something waits beneath it.

The whole story doesn't show."

~Andrew Wyeth~

 

 

*

  "When snow falls,

nature listens."

~Antoinette von Kleeff~

*

"I am younger each year at the first snow.

When I see it, suddenly, in the air

all little and white and moving,

then I am in love again and

I believe everything."

~Ann Sexton~

 

 Happy Winter Solstice!

Deep peace of the winter solstice to you.

Deep peace of the falling snow to you.

Deep peace of the love of friends to you.

Deep peace of the gentle deer to you.

Deep peace of the moon and stars to you.

 ~author unknown~

jan





what can killers teach us?

 

Like most of you, I was horrified to wake up on Monday morning to news of a second mass shooting in two days, over the weekend, one at Brown University and another on Bondi Beach in Australia. And, in case you missed them, the shootings that also unfolded under the radar in Greenville, N.C., in Brooklyn, N.Y., and in Cleveland, Ohio. As reality started to sink in, it occurred to me how many layers there are to these stories.

"Man is unique in

organizing the mass murder

of his own species."

~Aldous Huxley~

The unfathomable grief blanketing the friends and families of the victims. The shock. The anger, fear, and sorrow they will shoulder for the rest of their lives.

"No one ever told me

that grief felt so like fear."

~CS Lewis~

The aftermath of trauma the survivors face. The pain. The scars. The horror.

"I'm standing in the ashes

of who I used to be."

~Mallika Dodeja~

 

You have to wonder if the courage and resolve it took for first responders to act at the scene didn't falter just a bit. Maybe, a lot. You have to wonder how those images are carved into their psyches. Into their hearts.

 

And who doesn't want to know what drives a person to commit murder in the first place? Not to excuse them or to forgive them, but to understand how something like that takes root in a human heart. To fathom what it takes to plant the seeds of hatred, violence, and dispassion in the mind of someone who was born an innocent child?

 

What about the parents and families of these men? Mystery abounds. Speculation grows. Will we ever know the truth? Will we ever hear their stories?

 

"There is no greater agony

than bearing an untold story

inside you."

~Maya Angelou~

 

What about the nurses and doctors who dropped everything to tend to the influx of trauma patients on short notice. How did they get through it?
 

Does it help those of us who practice narrative medicine to tell our stories? Does anyone benefit from hearing them? What can we learn from victims and patients? What can killers teach us? Nick Flynn knows. Author of "Another Bullshit Night in Suck City" and "The Ticking Is the Bomb," his mother took her own life. Suddenly. So, he knows.

 

SUDDEN

~by Nick Flynn~

 

If it had been a heart attack, the newspaper

might have used the word massive,

as if a mountain range had opened

inside her, but instead

 

it used the word suddenly, a light coming on

 

in an empty room. The telephone

 

fell from my shoulder, a black parrot repeating

something happened, something awful

 

a Sunday, dusky. If it had been

terminal, we could have cradled her

as she grew smaller, wiped her mouth,

 

said good-bye. But it was sudden,

 

how overnight we could be orphaned

& the world become a bell we'd crawl inside

& the ringing all we'd eat.

 

jan