An Invitation to Become "Re-Enchanted With Life"

('The seed of suffering in you may be strong, but don't wait until you have no more suffering before allowing yourself to be happy.'- Thich Nhat Hanh)

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I've been off social media for nearly 25 days now...

...and whenever I share this with someone, the response almost always seems to be along the lines of:

"I've been thinking about doing that too. It's been so toxic. It's just not as fun anymore."

I think through the months of November and December I was experiencing this same kind of feeling about life in general. With so much apparent conflict, dissonance, and dis-ease, I felt energetically drained, disconnected, and disenchanted. Life, like social media, was "just not as fun anymore."

I also felt an implication that in order to be present to the collective unrest, I had to function with a baseline level of dissatisfaction and disdain. I almost felt guilty being joyful, as if it was a betrayal of the cultural moment--like I was "taking my eye off the ball" in the battle of "The People v. Oppression."

I even caught myself, when answering the question of, "how are you?", forcing some sort of political acknowledgement into the answer.

"I've been really great, I just had this beautiful weekend

<<BUT ALSO TRUMP, AM-I-RIGHT?!?!!>>"

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I've realized now that this way of being--living life as a continual "angry Facebook post"---is not only not sustainable, but it's actually a form of oppression in itself--

Because being free to choose to be happy, regardless of the actions of others, is a power no one should be able to take from me--

--and choosing to see the beauty of life, alongside the suffering, is the only way I'll be able to sustain my spirit for the next 4 years.

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