How to find a feeling of inner ease
Last year, my 79-year-old dad was visiting me and we saw a bumper sticker that read “Resist.” With a curious tone, he asked, “Resist what?”
Now, I live in San Francisco and bumper stickers that say “Resist” are pretty common. They are shorthand for movements of social justice and human rights, and generally a rallying cry for liberals to oppose political policies that are harmful or unjust, especially to groups of people who are usually pushed to the margins or ignored.
These bumper stickers are a way that many liberals, at least here in the Bay Area, started to outwardly signal that they are in solidarity with communities of color. I remember seeing Resist bumper stickers appear around the time of the Women’s March in 2017 and Trump’s ban of people from predominantly Muslim countries being able to travel to the US.
I was amused, but not surprised, that my dad wasn’t familiar with the meaning of the “Resist” slogan.
It’s his vantage point.
He’s a happy, aging Boomer. A white man from the South who, while liberal in his social views, has enjoyed a certain ease in moving through the world, even as he’s endured and persisted through vicissitudes that have make life difficult and precious, both.
It’s hard to recognize that ease when you have it. When the world is simply set up to accommodate you. There are few things to resist.
It’s a noisy time in the world, friends, and you and I both know that ease can be hard to come by.
Holding on to a feeling of inner ease can be challenging when the outer world isn’t set up for our ease.
Lately, I’ve been trying to find that soft life that is slow and sweet, but that doesn’t stick my head in the sand like an ostrich. (Because if ever there was an analogy of a vantage point that’s unhelpful, it’s the ostrich foolishly ignoring a problem and hoping it will magically vanish.)
The difficulties of our current times won’t vanish, and I have no more answers than you about how to deal with them (despite the headline of this post which promises answers but doesn’t deliver!).
But I do know one thing for sure: Keeping ourselves soft, searching for understanding, and leaning in to the knitting and yarn and slow hand crafts that ground us … these are also resistance.
Wherever you find yourself today, whether it’s cleaning out a drawer with me or not, I hope you find some quiet, slow, still moments to enjoy the work of your hands. It’s work but also play.
In the spirit of quiet play, I’d like to share a little joy I found this morning on Instagram. The wonderful knitting artist and video creator India Rose Crawford has released a new video of her knitted Frog’s adventures. Her videos reflect weeks and weeks of work, and they are so magical. Enjoy!
I will have to sit out this swap as I will be out of town the first two weeks of August--but looking forward to next time! This is such a brilliant idea.
Again, thank you so much for the Swap Shop! I have so many sweaters and cardigans that just never fit me quite right or that I will never fit into again that are needing new homes. It's going to be wonderful to know that they are going to someone who will love them.