Following our Bliss: When life gets heavy

Sometimes, it's all I can do to breath and get through the day.

In March, we put in an offer on a wonderful home in Canal Fulton that we loved! It was a short sale home and we knew it would be a process to get through.

We are just now coming to the end of that process in mid-August. "Supposedly" we will close September 11th.

We put our house up for sale at the end of June and it was sold in basically a few days. We closed on it last night.

We are still living here, and will be able to (thankfully) until September 14th.

Josh quit his job two weeks ago and has started a new job.

I start school on Monday.

I haven't packed a thing.

Panic, insomnia, lists, budgets, money...the list goes on.

And then just when I think it can't get any worse -- the events in Charlottesville happen.

Last night; I barely slept.

A young woman died standing up for what was right.

Our president basically said, "oh, well".

Meanwhile I am racking my brain as to WHY in the word this is happening, in the United States, in 2017? How did we get here? How can we as a country be this bad?

Then I think about the two little girls I have sleeping in the room next to me. I think about the 20 new 2nd grade faces that will be walking into my room next week. I think about myself and the people that I associate with.

I will raise my daughters to be tolerant, kind, and welcoming.

I will teach my students to be tolerant, kind, and welcoming.

I will be tolerant, kind, and welcoming.

And I hope that the people that I associate with will do the same. If not, I have no room in my life for them.

You know, it's really, really easy to think that "I" have problems and to stress out about things that in the moment seem too big to even allow me to breath.

But then for someone like me who is a mom, a teacher, and a friend. I realize that there is so much more that I need to be actually stressing out about.

We've got big problems, and we've got big work to do. Politics or not, this is the world we live in today. Until everyone opens their eyes and their mouths to stand up for what is right we will only continue to go down this road.

I am an advocate for my daughters and I will not sit silent--they deserve better.

So, if you are like me and you've been stressed out about whatever it is in your life; put it on the back burner for a minute and start doing something to help society and to bring love and kindness back into this world.

Let's be real--whatever stresses are in my life currently they will work itself out and be ok.

But, unless a bunch of people don't start working really hard on the other stuff nothing will change.

The last thing I ever want my daughters to have to worry about are Nazis and terrorism happening in their neighborhood.

Let's be better. Teach kindness, show kindness, and practice kindness; it matters!