begone bot

never had a bot show up on one of these before, but I deleted it as soon as I saw it

I have before lol it is always so flummoxing

one thing I appreciate is the emphasis on grieving. we'll have to accept what we've lost, before we can work on getting it back

otherwise, we'll end up getting caught flat-footed in a 4+ year haze of "I can't believe this"

which helps nobody

I really need to find a way to get involved in something locally/de-isolate. God it doesn't even have to be political. A freaking book club or something. I never really came out the quarantine haze in a lot of ways. Idek where to start tho

skipthedemon: I'm feeling that hard right now

skipthedemon: yeah, I feel that. the local volunteer/civic-minded community I was part of became fragmented during the pandemic. all the recent tech layoffs haven't made it any easier to regroup, either

the past couple of years, I've been doing a lot of inner-work to manage my chronic pain. turns out a lot of the same things you learn - checking in with yourself, grieving, reaching out for support, and acting with intentionality - are useful for dealing with autocratic pains. who knew!!!

but I know someone who recently started volunteering at the local library bookstore once a week, and they swear it's done wonders with de-isolation and feeling more connected

so yeah, I think even starting small with something like a book club sounds like a great idea. the article I linked talked about how affinity groups can become a form of resistance, simply by offering a sense of community

this is very good article, and these are very good comments. I'm also just looking at my dog: we got licensed as a therapy dog and handler in 2022, and right now I'm just "AND NOW, THE TRUE BATTLE BEGINS."

(...the once a week maximum true battle, to be clear. need to consider the welfare of the dog, after all.)