There is a prayer about having the strength to change the things you can, the patience to endure the things you can not, and the wisdom to know the difference between the two.
So what am I doing? Mostly avoiding the news. There are lots of things happening that I can not change, fussing about them only hurts me. Stupidity and evil fill fail on their own. I find this encouraging.
I was in the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC one day last week. There was a special exhibit of early impressionist works from the 1870's in Paris. The exhibition talked about and showed Paris in distress. And thinking about it Paris has been tested a couple of times in the last 100 years. And yet the good and beauty recovered. We may be moving into a period of distress, but in the long run, the beauty will prevail. I somehow found the recovery of Paris, encouraging.
Like many of you, I am still fragile. It is easy to worry about the future, especially as one who has studied the past. But the long picture of the past is encouraging. Evil falls and fails of its own accord. I am focused on encouraging others to put one foot in front of the other, moving forward one step at a time, one day at a time, into a future of our making.
Like you, I'm not watching any news hardly. And may not for some time. Might make me ignorant...but I don't need my blood pressure affected or worry about things out of my control. My tip helped set things right, and then met up with another blogger in Philly this weekend....so that helped brighten my mood more.
ReplyDeleteMy trip helped!!!!!
DeleteI’m just barely keeping up on the news. I’m never as positive as you when it comes to this. I figure the world will probably survive but I worry about all the suffering to come in the meantime. Not everyone will survive. Uf! Since I can’t manage to find my way the way you do, I’ll go back to not thinking about it momentarily.
ReplyDelete