Five Good Things

Hello friends! It’s been a while since I’ve checked in with some good things. There is a lot of pain, chaos, uncertainty, violence, and justified anger permeating these times. From almost weekly news of mass killings to the tidal wive of #metoo revelations of women who’ve experience sexual harassment assault, it’s easy to feel compassion fatigue, overwhelmed, and burned out. These are a few of the things helping me look towards the light and towards hope this fall. None of these make any of the darkness of these times less true. However, all of them make it more bearable for me.

1. Election Day 2017. It honestly just felt good to vote again, and I felt really inspired when I got the sticker commemorating that women had been voting in NY for 100 years. Then from the governor races in New Jersey and Virginia to medicaid expansion in Maine and Danica Roem, an openly transgender woman, winning a seat in the Virginia statehouse to the election of a Sikh mayor in Hoboken … it felt nice to celebrate and see my values represented in an election.
2. I got way more into Halloween this year than usual, as you can see above from my unicorn costume and the pumpkin pie I only slightly burned.
3. Working with children is an incredibly hopeful experience. They are so funny and thoughtful and open. One student told me last week, “You know sometimes a man turns into a woman and sometimes a woman turns into a man … and that’s okay.” Other times they are just goofy (but also brilliant). 
4. This fall, I’ve been to three amazing readings. I got to see Nicole Krauss, where I basked in her wisdom and practically melted when I met her and she referred to me as her neighbor. I heard the genius of Ta-Nehisi Coates and experienced the silly, joy of seeing John Green and his brother Hank. All three books the authors were promoting are true gifts to the world.
5. I have a 20 mile walk with friends planned tomorrow from one end of Queens to the other. I don’t know if me and my knees are going to make it the whole way … but I’m excited to spend time with friends, spend time moving in my body, and explore a borough I don’t know that much about!