Today is Groundhog’s Day. Don’t you wish it were like the movie Groundhog’s Day, where the most important thing in the world was to change up your particular plot line, a la the film Groundhog’s Day? Don’t you wish that all you had to worry about in the world was finding time to sit down and watch Bill Murray in Groundhog’s Day?
Yeah, me too.
Oh, friends. Someday soon my brain will allow me to craft elaborate narratives again, instead of piecemeal thoughts which bullet across WordPress like hiccups and burps and startled gasps. Today is not that day. (And to further quote that tired ol’ saying: Tomorrow’s not looking so good, either.)
Have you noticed the number of bloggers and social media influencers who, um, don’t know exactly how to tread this brave new world? I sure have! I’m also one of them. It’s a delicate dance- and a slippery slope- between creating and promoting content for a paying client, and coming off as tone deaf to the tiny (and not-so-tiny) crises happening nationally and worldwide. On one hand, promoting products is a large part of how we pay for preschool. On the other hand, the public education we hold so dear for our kids’ futures is in current (and constant) jeopardy, and not speaking up or signing on doesn’t do justice for our very real concerns and very real rage. On a third hand, it’s impossible to make clear your equal amounts of anger for each of the (very, very, very) important issues, especially on Facebook or Twitter without coming off like a shrilling she-harpy who doesn’t discern (or modulate) which things set her off. (HINT: IT IS LITERALLY EVERYTHING THIS WEEK.) On the other other hand, voicing an opinion of something timely and/or critical in the morning and then posting a preschooler’s whimsical attempt at autonomy by dinner makes you look like a fluffy, flippy jerk for whom things don’t super-duper matter and everyone will hate you for your privilege if they do not already (which they probably do). By the fifth hand, you realize that you’re approaching a positively Hindu number of appendages and should probably get that checked out.
While you still have health insurance, that is.
So yes, it’s all about balance. Which I have zero of right now. But which I’m working towards each and every day, with every breath of awareness and cringe of blanket-over-headitude.
The other afternoon, as I was helping out in Suzy’s classroom, we took a break to play in the sensory table; that day it was filled with a kind of mud made from shampoo and cornstarch.
It. Was. Awesome.
I told the four and five-year olds that this was what was needed, a little sensory time to reset the ol’ ‘fight or flight’ endorphins and center you back firmly in the here and now. (I got two blank stares, one nose-pick, and a timid request of whether or not it was snack time. But I think it’ll resonate with them someday, and that’s my point.)
(Balance.)
Be good to each other this week. Be patient with each other this week. Try try try this week.
And if you need some cornstarch, hit me up. I’ve got you.
Speak Your Mind