Spark Joy and Exercise Respect

It’s the traditional time to minimize our footprint on this earth. Diets and gyms advertise heavily, white sales rule the month, and people begin to remove things from your life that do not spark joy. The most impactful sentence from that link is “We don’t hang on to things; we hang on to emotions attached to those things.” Being newly retired sparks joy, but it gives me time to declutter everything, so that’s my life for the month of January and maybe into February. I’m promising myself that there will be nothing left that isn’t loved and/or required.

Perhaps you had the same feeling as me during yesterday’s inauguration of Joe Biden, the 46th U.S. president. Throughout the day, I began to realize that I was starting to feel safe and even normal. I had a sense that we would all be alright now. I wondered if we all suffered a little Stockholm Syndrome and have a mild case of mass PTSD. The last four years have been an alternate reality, but combined with the pandemic, I’m wondering if we were all a little at the end of the rope of reality and the calendar date flipped to January 20 before hope was lost. We were all so disrespected by our national and local leaders that it made it easy to be disrespectful to each other.

Whatever happens in the coming years, I at least feel certain that respect will start at the most important house in America and, more importantly, safe. That makes it easier to spark joy in our lives, too.