We are all in this together.

I've started this post numerous ways. And I, verbose as I am, have no words for this.

Sometimes, I feel like some vital connection to all the other lives on this planet is slipping away. And that connection that used to be inherent must now be nurtured by all of us. Somehow, we have to see, really see, all those beings who need help, kindness, and compassion.

Many people, heck, all of us, are just a few tragic steps from becoming homeless or worse. So many beings (two-legged, four-legged, no-legged, winged) suffer daily. Sometimes, I have to close my eyes and ears and heart to some of it or I feel I will disintegrate in the sorrow and the rage. And yet, I keep trying to maintain the connection. I keep reaching out to others who need help in small and big ways. I live as cruelty-free as I can. And I try to leave any situation better than I found it.

Sometimes, the suffering I see debilitates me and I have choose between drowning in it and staying just a little apart from it so I can have the energy to help where I can. Damn. This is hard. I spent the weekend reading for over a hundred people. Many of them needed help in some serious ways. Many are trying to deal with surviving abuse and rape. And in those few minutes I had with them, I tried to help them. I gave them resources for therapists or crisis centers or just an ear, a shoulder and the knowledge that someone sees them - that someone sees and acknowledges how they have suffered and is grateful they are still here.

To slightly misquote the movie Rob Roy. "If they can bear to endure it, I can bear to be witness."

Here's what I keep telling myself. 

We are all in this together.

Thank you for reading.

Today's Tarot: Two of Swords (impasse, emotional stalemate)

Trust. In essence, this card is about trust. Wherever we find ourselves, we need to trust that we are seeing what we are seeing and more importantly that we are feeling what we're feeling.

We have to trust that it is okay to feel what we feel. Sure, if we are experiencing emotions that are frightening or that leave us feeling out of our depth it can be a real challenge to stop, breathe, and allow ourselves the room to be vulnerable enough to feel what we feel.

If you look at the card, it is usually depicted by a woman who is sitting in front of a body of water. She is blindfolded and she holds two crossed swords. In the tarot, water represents our emotions. The swords represent our intellect and/or ability to think through or rationalize our current situations. So when we see the figure crossing swords to keep us from getting to the body of our emotions, we can ascribe those definitions to our lives.

Something intellectual might be keeping us from accessing, acknowledging and feeling our emotions. We might be staying in our heads (which often feels much safer) and "thinking" our emotions instead of feeling them. And the feeling of them is crucial.

That goes for our internal processes as well as our external connections to others. If there is someone in your life who is tweaking your emotional heartstrings, but with whom you don't feel safe enough to be emotionally vulnerable, then attention must be paid. Either you need to find out if you can be emotionally vulnerable, or you need to remove yourself from the situation causing the risky feelings so that you can experience those emotions and eventually get back onto an even keel.

I've always loved how much water imagery is ascribed and related to feelings and emotions. Even keel, still waters run deep, drowning in emotions, are just three of them.

Today, it will be important to trust your feelings (both internally and in your interactions with others) and if you believe you can't do that, then at least give yourself permission to feel them. By the way, please bear in mind that if you need, really need, to be vulnerable with someone with your emotions and either they run away or they turn you away, then consider that you are wasting your time on this person. Intimacy is a two-way street and ultimately fair-weather friends will only ever keep it one way. You deserve better. Please remember that.