As a youngster, I was prone to crying. My sister got the doll I wanted? I cried. The kids at school teased me about my lips? I cried. My grandma used to pull me onto her lap and hum a song—a simple tune without words that I can hear even now. I feel my body being rocked on her lap, my torso moving forward and back. The tears always stopped.

Lately I’ve been thinking how nice it would be if my grandma could again make everything better.

Right now many of us are haunted by huge concerns. There are protests on the streets. A global pandemic. Police violence. Mounting job losses and the destruction of our planet. What can any of us do with such mounting unease? Sometimes the state of the world feels like too much.

Yet as a writer and as an adult, I’ve had to search out my own means of comfort. Sometimes that means journaling about my day. Sometimes I read poetry. Other days I flip distractedly through unfinished drafts of essays and stories, searching for something that glimmers with possibility.

Some writers are at their creative best right now. Others are not able to create at all and all of this is okay. There is no one right way to process this time.

The questions may unnerve us for some time, but they also invite possibility—of change, of transformation. Through our words and our attempts to connect, we will endure.

Your Turn:
How are you managing this time? Are there certain books that bring you solace? Activities that are bringing you comfort? Please respond to this email with your thoughts and I will print them next month.

Here's wishing you good focus and good stories.

Melissa