A Call To Action- Because I Won’t Let My Anxiety Silence Me

Hi blog land (and people who unknowingly visit blog land through social media links because let’s be honest, that’s like everyone now)!

It’s been entirely too long.

I spent the first few months of this cross-country RV trip fighting off the tail end of my regularly scheduled postpartum anxiety, along with launching a book, and figuring out this new life.

So this blog and all that goes with it felt like that giant pile of laundry that you know eventually you have to clean, but you find ways to live without whatever is dirty because it’s not that you just have to put some clothes in the washer, but you know then you have to dry them and fold them and put them away. Like that laundry, I kinda wondered if it would be easier to just burn it all and buy new than to dig in and get things cleaned up.

Anxiety tries to tell me to burn a lot of stuff down, or at least ignore it real hard. As the clouds have lifted the last few months, I’ve had a lot of messes to clean up since I didn’t actually light anything on fire. And today felt like a great day, finally, to come here, to pick up the pieces, to just start writing about what feels like it’s paralyzing me the most right now.

Truthfully, I’m still anxious these days- especially today. I am anxious about the state of our country. I am fully heartsick about the children being ripped from their parent’s arms at our borders right now with no real plan or guarantee for reunification. As a mother- AS A HUMAN- I can not begin to imagine the horror so many of them faced to make the choice to come here in the first place, only to be told by an official of OUR government that their baby would be taken for a bath and then NEVER RETURNED.

In the interest of keeping this post brief, I’m going to link to some sources if you’d like to read up on this further-
From Congressman Beto O’Rourke
A Twitter thread by journalist Jacob Soboroff
A NY Times article detailing when and how and why this became a crisis
An NPR story of a family trying to legally seek asylum but being turned away

And just like that pile of laundry, or this blog, or anything else in my life that seems so big and so hard to tackle, I feel like freezing up. What can I possibly do? This feels so much bigger than me.

But what I can do is talk to anyone who will listen, knowing fully that some people will be upset that I’ve used my voice and my space for this. I also know, though, that many of you will read this and realize that you, too, can raise your voice in whatever capacity you have, and you can show others why we should take action and how. You’re the one this is for.

It doesn’t matter who you voted for. I don’t care.

To me, this isn’t a republican or democrat thing. This is a human thing. I’m certain that I have many friends across the entire political spectrum who will not stand for this, and are joining me in crying out for action.

If me speaking out about this makes you want to unfollow me, bye. I spent way too much of the last year and a half letting my anxiety tell me to shut up, that I’m too small, that things are too big, that this place and that place and that other place aren’t the places to talk about things.

The time is now, the place is here and anywhere else I am. The call to action is this-

CALL

202-224-3121- that’s the US Capitol Switchboard. They’ll connect you to your Senator or Representative.

Not sure what to say? Here’s a great place to start:
“I’m completely opposed to children being separated from their parents at our border. America has always aspired to be a beacon for people fleeing oppression. We must stand for what we’ve always been and end the zero tolerance policy.” Thanks to my dear friend Asha Dornfest, who shared this wording suggestion from her friends at NWGSD.

It can be as simple as that. There is power in numbers.

When I first started calling my reps, I found that I felt empowered to do more. So if you feel that way, this is an incredibly thorough and thought out post from my friends at Cool Mom Picks that will get you going.

It feels really good to write about this, to make an effort to DO something. Is it everything I can do? Certainly not, but it’s a start. I refuse to let my anxiety make me feel small and powerless about this.

I hope that you will take a few minutes to make that call because you are not powerless, either.

Turning off comments here because I don’t have time or reliable internet connection as we travel to babysit them.

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