AUTHOR: ARTSYCHOWROAMER

Dear 2022

BE KINDER TO US PLEASE!

If you’re like me you are just worn slap out with prayin’ for a better year…amma right? This pandemic just keeps coming back to kick our ass and I for one have become less than patient for those who are not getting their jabs allowing variants to keep rolling out.

We have tried everything to get these folks on board and nothing has worked. As one unboostered friend tried to explain to me, “there are two schools of thought on that.” “Really?” I responded. “Would that be right and wrong?”

I mean at this stage of the game what could possibly be going through someone’s head that allowed them to get their first shots but not the boosters when they are over 65 and both have underlying health issues centered around their lungs? Sayyy whhhaaatt?

So I told the friend (and a family member or two) that I was done. I was ready for them to start losing stuff; stuff like privileges. No boats, trains, buses or planes. No movies, theater, festivals or concerts. No sporting events like football, basketball, baseball or soccer.

I’m good if they lose their job and don’t get unemployment benefits. I’m super OK with their friends and family uninviting them to things until they get their full card. BTW-that includes weddings, graduations, baby showers, holiday meals, parties and funerals.

In other words, until you get it right, just turn around now…you’re not welcome anymore. Too tough? I don’t think so. Cause I don’t think 2022 can be kinder to us until more people step up to the plate and do what’s right for others instead of digging in on whatever rationalization they jibber jabber on about in order not to appear to be selfish or uninformed.

Do I place all the blame at their feet? No. I think leadership is a must during these times and we have had a lot that will be called to account one day for the lack thereof. (And no, I am not talking about President Biden.)

THE PLAGUES OR END OF DAYS?

You add the complete weariness of the pandemic to the other things happening around the country and in the world and you start to understand why many are at the limits of their emotional and psychological capacity.

Addiction to drugs and alcohol and the stats on gun violence and crime are skyrocketing. Domestic violence is up as folks have been forced to stay in place and don’t even get me started on the lonely who have never known the joys of just being ok with you and you only.

Of course the religious types are all busy making comparisons to the plagues of Egypt and the end of days. Having been raised in the Southern Baptist faith I am very familiar with the pulpit pounding sermons centered around the words in Exodus and Revelations; the punishments to the Pharaoh for refusing to let the Hebrews go and the signs of the second coming of Jesus.

Climate change aside, which probably is the explanation for many events, those unbelievers would rather make people cower in fear at the prophecies of the bible than accept the scientific fact that man and the industrial revolution just might be to blame.

If we don’t do a course correct our greedy selfish asses will have no where to go while the rich boys traveling in space will start raping a new planet. (Read broke asses not welcome here…no room at the inn). Add to this all the polarization of politics with the hard yank right around the world and you see the days leading up to WWII if you are a student of history.

It’s enough to wear anyone down. Do you wonder how it will turn out and whether or not you will be around to see it happen? If I were younger I might not consider having children at this point; I’d be too frightened for their future. I’m glad I don’t have any. I was told recently by a friend with a teenager that they will save us….I don’t know….maybe; but I haven’t seen many of them that are interested in voting or public service so how could they?

RESOLUTIONS

So what does this do to the new year; how we face it or live with it in a better way? I used to make New Years resolutions every year. I would mull over what I thought I had not been doing right and what I should be doing differently (hint: this year will still involve trying to get off the Trump 10 and the quarantine 15).

But I know now that there are more important things to concentrate on than how much I weigh and don’t feel the same pressure. I love me and my body more after all this; even with my mother’s gentle hints that I should be weighing myself more. 🙄

While there are some things we still can’t or shouldn’t do, if you are jabbed in full you have a lot more choices than folks who aren’t. The last two years have made me so grateful that I got to do as much traveling as I did before this pandemic hit.

I’ve missed it so much and haven’t been back to my second home in Prague since 2015. I will go back in 2022 if there is any way possible so I can see friends and family again after so many years apart. Being quarantined has helped me connect again in a better way with my husband as well.

It’s helped me realize that life is really short and none of us are going to survive as Mel Brooks musical lyrics brilliantly point out. I am sad that so many people have lost their loved ones and don’t have the future to look forward to-growing old together will not be an option.

But I am determined to keep me and mine as safe as possible and not tempt fate to make us pay for a mistake or choice that didn’t have to happen. Many are saying goodbye on phones and through glass for these very things while this virus ravages the world.

WHAT WILL YOU DO?

Along with my resolutions I like to think in terms of specific things I can do to change this year up from previous years. As I mentioned above, I am going to get back to Europe if there is any way possible. I have bought the tickets and feel both excited and grateful to be able to do it. 🤞

I have decided to do fewer blog posts in the new year and concentrate more on pitching my freelance work that helps my pocket and my families bottom line. I have spent a lot of time building a portfolio, my social, my blog and my newspaper column audience. It is way past time to throw this baby bird out of the nest. 🎉

I am going to act more on my activist roots surrounding my politics, values and morals. Meaning, I am going to find more ways to push back than ever before. I have been calling out the lies, conspiracies, racism, voter suppression and misinformation that surrounds us every day and the clowns who push it under the guise of news while they laugh all the way to the bank.

It is no accident that I post this blog on January 6th-the anniversary of the insurrection regardless of what “they” call it and you know who you are. 😏 Politics makes me more weary than anything else on the planet right now.

I thought when Biden came in that we could say goodbye to the freak parade and move back into a more normal kind of time. Clearly that has not happened and I blame it on the GOP. If I am insulting you I apologize and maybe this isn’t the blog for you.

I want to find more folks like myself in my community because that is who I want to spend time with. That is who I want to volunteer with. That is who I want to vote beside and change things with.

There is a guy and his wife in my community that own the property where a vulgar sign about Biden is posted for everyone to see driving by including children. Why? Because he still can’t face the fact that his guy is a loser and you have to accept and move on just like we had to do in 2016. (BTW-he also has a black lawn jockey standing by it…..need I say more?)

I want to galvanize my community to shame people like this at every level so they understand that the behavior they thought had been blessed will not be tolerated and send them back under the rock they crawled out from under.

MORNING PAGES AND VISUAL BOARDS

I used to write daily in a composition book in a technique called morning pages. I haven’t had time to do it as much as I would have liked. It helps me to write things down that I want to achieve ….how about you? I think if you write it ….it will happen. I want to make more time for it again.

Morning pages helps you solidify ideas, think things through, isolate your feelings and become more in touch with them. Writing things down has a way of making them come true and has been proven in many different situations.

Visualization boards work really well too. Have you ever done one? If you don’t know how, gather a lot of magazines you like, sit down with some scissors and start leafing through them. Look at places you like, things that appeal to you, colors you like, graphics that speak to your message and cut them out.

Keep going through and cut out as much as you like. When done, put down the scissors and put everything you cut out on a big table with a piece of cardboard. Start grouping them. You will be surprised how they work together because they are speaking to you and your desires and dreams.

Place them on the board to create your story. The story that expresses exactly where you want to go and what you want to do. Once you have it arranged-glue it down. Now place it in a place you can see it day in and day out.

When you look at it, say out loud that these are your dreams and hopes and ask the universe to hear you and give them to you. You’ve probably heard it before, what you send out to the universe is what you get back-positive or negative.

VISUALIZING SUCCESS

In other words, building it and looking at it every day is just like writing it down. What you talk about, write about and look at every day is what you are telling the universe to send your way. It works in the negative too. I know more then a few examples of the speakers of negative that seem to get exactly what they ask for over and over without understanding why.

The energy you put out is the energy you get back. A simple concept and one that I continue to try to work on year after year but I have to admit the last few have made it harder to be positive over negative.

CONCLUSION

I hope this post gives you a few things to think about and some helpful tips. New Years can be stressful. Especially if you feel compelled to make resolutions that you might have trouble keeping. But make a plan. Write it down. Design a visual board. It will help you flesh out the changes you want to make.

I want to:

• See my friends and family in Europe again

• Tap my activist roots

• Find more friends that I connect with at a core level

• Defeat those in my community who thrive on hate

• Do more pitching

• Do less blogging

• Get back to morning pages and visual boards

• Show gratitude to the universe for my blessings and my family

These are the things I am targeting for the coming year. What will you put in your pages and on your board? I hope you have picked up some tips that might help you figure that out.

If you like what you read, you might also want to read more blogs under Just Because. Hey, don’t be a stranger! What are your plans for 2022? Happy New Year Constant Reader! Look for my upcoming blog post on a cookbook review and a guest post from my British gal pal. Until next time…

Cheers,

ArtsyChowRoamer

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