Rage + joy need each other

With thanks to Kamloops follower, Carol Edwards here’s a great piece from The Thread, with Jenny Smith – Please read the original post complete with a few poignant poems.

Nov 14, 2024

Jenny Smith writes:

“Gentle readers, I’m sending you deep love this day. For whatever your body is holding. I’m currently hanging out at my Airbnb in Texas as I get ready for a work conference this week.

Wearing my pride shirt through their airport felt like more of a statement than usual. The person who rang up my food in the terminal said, “I like your shirt.” I glanced at their lanyard full of transgender buttons. We looked into each other’s eyes and nodded and I tried not to cry. A million things went through my head that I wanted to say but the next person waited impatiently behind us. So I simply said, “Thank you,” and conveyed all the love I could as I smiled at them.

They smiled back.

Since the election, my daily rhythms have veered from rage to joy and back to rage like a three-year-old without a nap. I don’t like feeling rage. It makes me feel out of control and too wild for my comfort zone. I feel a deep need to not tuck it away like I have in the past. The rage is welcome. What does it want me to see? To feel? To know?

Here’s to one step at a time, choosing to show up to whatever emerges. Even if it’s uncomfortable. We really can grow our nervous system’s capacity to handle more of life’s complexity.

Love is so good to us.

—Jenny Smith

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