Photo by The Silence

Good Riddance, 2017

The seemingly bottomless cesspool of appalling events—horrific politics, tragic shootings and natural disasters, heartbreaking revelations in the rope bondage community, and major life shit of my own—that made up last year…good f*$% riddance. I want to stuff everything way down, put a firm lid on it, and shove it over a cliff.

That would, of course, be an illusion anyway. We still have the same president; there will always be tragedies and heartbreaks and life shit. The question is, how do we not let it get us down? I’m really struggling with that. I have so much to celebrate beyond even just having the basics of food, shelter, running water, good healthcare. And yet here I am writing in my pajamas staring out at the rain and wondering if I’ll find the energy to leave the house today.

To save you well-meaning advice-givers some effort, yes I have a therapist. And I’m on anti-depressants and have tried several kinds. And I don’t believe in the nonsense that seems especially prevalent in the U.S. that we should be happy all the time and put a positive spin on everything. Malarkey. Life is a rich tapestry, and some of the threads are blue.

But in an effort to not get tangled up in those blue threads so much that it becomes hard to escape them, I’m starting today with a major gratitude:

I’m grateful for every single person who has offered me love and support, in whatever form it has taken. If you’re reading this, that probably means you. 

Thank you for caring, for being there, for being a candle flame in the dark. Your efforts matter, whether big or small. I appreciate you.

And I have hope that the efforts of good people will win out over the efforts of evildoers. I believe that love is stronger than hate. I believe that the world still has much goodness in it, and that the goodness will grow if we work at it.

Here’s hoping that 2018 will be full of goodness for all of us.

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