Wow. This is exactly what I needed to read today. Thank you for the permission to be unable to fix everything. Maybe that's the only kind of self-care we really need. Just to relax into the knowledge that we're useless, really, so maybe we should just put our comfy clothes on and have a big glass of water and go for a walk by a river somewhere....
It's funny how young and on fire we were in college about God. And people warned us how Christian colleges destroy your faith and we're like 'maybe other people, but not us!' ...and then here we are. But I am like you, I hold onto it, I just ditch the bullshit religious aspects of it. Anything that justifies us caring about others lives in a way as if it is our own or affects us at all. Just keeping the love. I have been thinking that recently -- not putting Christianity in the cross-hairs, but more how it's been taught to us. The older I get the more I see the teaching as people justifying their thoughts and behaviors by getting others to do the same. How often were we told about John and the scripture of Jesus being the way truth life...and it translates to what? Praying a specific prayer, raising your hand during an alter call? Really? Or is the 'no one gets to the Father except through me' not any of that. Is it about loving, and accepting, caring. Is that the 'through me' aspect of it? I always say "All I know, is that I don't know nothing!" and I get praise for the 'wisdom' of it...little do they know I'm just quoting Op Ivy, ha!! Anyway it's all bullshit and there is no right way or wrong way. Ice pops for breakfast? Of course, because it's needed for now! There are no plans or blueprints -- we all make it up as we go and do our best to survive. And if we're surviving and not hurting others along the way...then isn't that all we can do!
Darling--yes. This is my story, too, for eons. And, because you said you need delightful sweeping fantasy fiction--I have the perfect thing for you. Read Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, by Brandon Sanderson. I just finished it. It's *us*. A beautiful and perfect fantastical story of how a girl with the literal weight of her world on her shoulders learns how not to be god. A narrative that lives out the truth we are longing to know and understand--always better than a didactic how-to.
Wow. This is exactly what I needed to read today. Thank you for the permission to be unable to fix everything. Maybe that's the only kind of self-care we really need. Just to relax into the knowledge that we're useless, really, so maybe we should just put our comfy clothes on and have a big glass of water and go for a walk by a river somewhere....
It's funny how young and on fire we were in college about God. And people warned us how Christian colleges destroy your faith and we're like 'maybe other people, but not us!' ...and then here we are. But I am like you, I hold onto it, I just ditch the bullshit religious aspects of it. Anything that justifies us caring about others lives in a way as if it is our own or affects us at all. Just keeping the love. I have been thinking that recently -- not putting Christianity in the cross-hairs, but more how it's been taught to us. The older I get the more I see the teaching as people justifying their thoughts and behaviors by getting others to do the same. How often were we told about John and the scripture of Jesus being the way truth life...and it translates to what? Praying a specific prayer, raising your hand during an alter call? Really? Or is the 'no one gets to the Father except through me' not any of that. Is it about loving, and accepting, caring. Is that the 'through me' aspect of it? I always say "All I know, is that I don't know nothing!" and I get praise for the 'wisdom' of it...little do they know I'm just quoting Op Ivy, ha!! Anyway it's all bullshit and there is no right way or wrong way. Ice pops for breakfast? Of course, because it's needed for now! There are no plans or blueprints -- we all make it up as we go and do our best to survive. And if we're surviving and not hurting others along the way...then isn't that all we can do!
Darling--yes. This is my story, too, for eons. And, because you said you need delightful sweeping fantasy fiction--I have the perfect thing for you. Read Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, by Brandon Sanderson. I just finished it. It's *us*. A beautiful and perfect fantastical story of how a girl with the literal weight of her world on her shoulders learns how not to be god. A narrative that lives out the truth we are longing to know and understand--always better than a didactic how-to.
I've added this to my book list- thank you for the rec!