And, there's much to be grateful for.

We can also pay attention to that.

I don’t need to tell you that this season has been a hard one.

Hurricane season. Election season. Seasonal affective season. Open season on every sociopolitical issue and figure. And yet, these terms only capture collective phenomena. They don’t come close to articulating the human toll of manmade and natural disaster. Nor do they account for the mental, emotional, physical, spiritual, and relational realities we daily encounter.

We feel it, our own and others’ nervous system reactions. We sense each other’s distress—through our news feeds, podcast feeds, inboxes, and social media reels. We perceive each other’s dysregulation—in church pews, on cable news, through distracted driving and road rage, on Substack notes.

We feel it, everything, all at once—and understandably so.

There is much to be anxious, outraged, exhausted, sick over, and sad about.

And, there is still much to be joyful, grateful, connected, and happy about.

Our emotions are feelings-in-motion. They provide us with feedback about how our internal worlds are doing, in light of their interaction with the external world.

How is my internal world? How’s yours? In light of the external world, what’s within our control? What isn’t?

If we pay close attention, we can make meaning out of what our feelings-in-motion are trying to tell us.

For example, anxiety, outrage, exhaustion, sickness, and sadness tell us that the world feels on fire. That the future seems uncertain. That something must change or else.

But when we’re not paying attention to these feelings or the feedback they give us, our emotions can get stuck, leaving us feeling completely helpless and utterly out of control. This leads to cognitive distortions: all-or-nothing thinking, emotional reasoning, catastrophizing. We can’t get anywhere with our emotions when they’re stuck and distorted.

In a more nuanced headspace, however, our feelings are still there and just as important to pay attention to. But when I remember that feelings are feedback, telling me instinctively what I need to do, I can both feel what I feel—and think through and know what’s true.

Parts of the world are on fire. The future has always been uncertain. And, I am not utterly helpless or out of control.

I still have agency and choice.

I still have family, friends, community, and relationships that matter.

I still depend on a good and loving God who is preeminent over all. Who created the universe in community. Who led us with vulnerability, with incarnation. Whose ways are so clearly unlike our ways.

So yes, there is much to be anxious, outraged, exhausted, sick over, and sad about.

And, there is still much to be joyful, grateful, connected, and happy about.

As I enter the holiday season, I am looking to my emotions for feedback. How is my internal world? What’s going on in my external world? What’s within my control? What’s outside of it? Then, I am asking myself what I need to do.

• Grieve?

• Rest?

• Find moments of calm?

• Create memories of presence?

• Take a break from my phone?

• Get off the internet?

• Close my social media apps?

• Find joy right where I am?

• Spend time with those I love?

• Give to those in immediate need?

Yes x10. And also, it’s always helpful and good to give thanks.