Everything isn't OK, but take care of yourself anyway

Well. Here we are.

Whatever waves of doom you've felt in the past 11 weeks, chances are they're hitting you extra hard today. And I just want to say, whatever you're doing to handle that today, it's OK.

I mean, take care of yourself and have a care for the safety of others. Don't do anything that will harm you or anyone else. But if you need to completely tune out the news, do it. (In general, plan to not try to follow every beat of the news over the next four years.

Know the broad strokes but don't hold yourself responsible for obsessing about the details. Know enough to know where you might be able to do some good, but don't drown yourself in it.) If you need to eat a quart of ice cream, go for it. Get off social media for a couple days. Touch grass – or snow, depending where you live. Find your community. If your community is on social media, find them there but try not to be a generalist doomscroller.

Think about what you can do to make a difference in the your corner of the world. Do what you can to strengthen your community – to make it more inclusive, more resilient, to help the vulnerable people in it. That can coexist with not following every awful hiring or firing or multibillion-dollar grift or harm. Allow yourself to feel joy where it presents itself, even if the world is a terrible place. Allow yourself to acknowledge that the horrors around us are devastating.

Just take care of yourself and anyone else you're able to. And feel free to chat here about whatever you want to say.