Don't Look Now
Don’t look now, if it is too painful.
Don’t look now, if the sadness is overwhelming.
Don’t look now, if there is no more room in you to bear the fear.
We don’t have to take a front seat to the atrocities of the world to know that they are there, or to do something about it. You are allowed to spare yourself from the compulsory viewing of the trauma porn and rage-bait.
“Pay it no mind.”
The cruelty and the spectacle is the point. They want your attention. The closer you look, the easier their sleight of hand.
Don’t look now, at the gaudy performance, the lip service, the twisted entertainment.
“Pay it no mind.”
Instead, tend to your garden. Care for those you love. Take deep pleasure in the simplicity and beauty of life. Walk in nature. Show yourself grace and tenderness. Create art. Dance.
Dance.
Never stop dancing.
Listen deeply, in stillness, in quiet, until you can hear yourself again. Your heartbeat, your breath, your deep, inner knowing.
Only from here can the world change, because this is the only place we change.
Don’t look now, they’ll die if starved of our attention.
Don’t look now, because this is resistance, this is defiance.
“Pay it no mind.”
Pay your attention,
your mind,
yourself
to the things that are deserving. Build community. Care for those who so often go unseen. Connect. Love.
This is what they are truly afraid of. They cannot stop a revolution of the heart.
Don’t look now.
“Pay it no mind.”
A quieter, more beautiful thing calls for your attention.
Beautiful, Abi, thank you!