These short message were sent to subscribers by email october 6th.
note: among my subscribers, i have – of course – people on both sides of political issues. i have women who support, and men who don’t, i have women who are in agony, and men who are nervous. I’m going to write some small notes about this over the next few days. you will take note of my impartiality. you will not email me and say ‘leave politics out of this’. I am not taking sides, nor expressing a personal opinion, i will talk about how you FEEL — and it could be about this particular judge event in the US, or it could be about other things. if you don’t have a worry or concern about the supreme court voting taking place “as soon as saturday”, then insert other words. the sentiments here will hopefully be the same, no matter the particulars. warning: if you send me anti-politics angriness while i’m trying to help people, i’ll be grumpy 🙂 you’ve been warned 🙂
small notes about supreme court judges and other things #1
wolfie looks for reasons to wind you up, so that drinking might seem like a good idea. you are allowed to turn off the tv as the best option for you right now. you’re not required to follow along, minute by minute, with live incremental updates and live video streams. if you can feel yourself becoming more agitated, it’s ok to listen to that internal warning. you being sober may require you to protect yourself. to not retraumatize yourself. watching or not watching will not change the voting results. it’s ok to do what’s best for you.
small notes about supreme court judges and other things #2
Think about ways that you can unplug, to take care of you. avoid the tv for a while, close down your facebook feed for today, turn off twitter. the news is coming at us from lots of different places. and how you practise self-care will look different from the next person. maybe today includes horse riding, cake baking, art making, llama patting, or flower-photo-taking.
small notes about supreme court judges and other things #3
be careful. this is me speaking. i’ll just say it: be careful. watch for public, well-meaning people who incite anger. there are a lot of frayed emotions right now, and some of the anger, while justified (no matter what side you’re on), can incite MORE anger, and it feeds on itself. watch for those who are fanning the flames. i’ll be over here making soothing noises. you can fix the world. you can! you have to be sober, though, to do it. so do this sober thing first. do it solidly.
from my inbox:
S: “Thank you for sharing this important issue. For us victims of abuse, it really does matter. It opened up a lot of wounds for so many. God bless you for reaching out to us across the pond.”
C: “You are an angel, Belle. I would like to add that about a month ago and in agreement with my therapist, I took all social media and news off my phone. Alerted my inner circle I will no longer be reading the news. It has literally I fucking kid you not changed my life. I had the biggest fear that I would miss something huge or that I wouldn’t be prepared to do my job if I wasn’t up to date with all the latest shit. I’m so much calmer, I can’t even explain it. I don’t own a TV so no issue there. Even my own mom, sick in her hospital bed last week shut CNN off when I walked in her damn room. I was triggered the WHOLE FUCKING DAY last week when I had to go into a hotel lobby to get a fucking BANANA and was forced to see our xx on television defending xx. I was a fucking wreck the whole day. This is what media does to survivors. So, we have to protect ourselves. Self care has literally saved my life. Xoxoxoxo. Keep doing what you do my dear.”
C: “Good advice. And good to recognize that you have a variety of followers. I deleted FB app from my phone last week and my inner peace returned!”
B: “thank you for this. lots of us have been hugely triggered as survivors and feel desperately rattled. so far cake has been a big help.”
[for context, these emails were sent out when Dr. Christine Ford / Brett Kavanaugh were in the American news]
new quarter-painting. for small-budgets.
