I Don’t Wanna

I have a mosquito bite on the inside of my right ankle. I saw the sucker bleeding me while bringing my foot forward from Downward Facing Dog to Crescent warrior. I also have a series of ant bites on my right forearm and wrist from demonstrating a forearm plank in the grass. There’s a bug bite on the top of my left hand, on my left calf. Practicing yoga outside is buggy and humid.

Fulton County Schools are not going to open for in-person school. Instead, students will attend virtually.

Virtual school starts at 8:20 am on Monday, 8/17. I have a large project for work beginning at 9:00 am on Monday, 8/17. I work from home.

It seems like it would be ok, right? Wrong. My kid is like many other 14-year-old boys, who would instead do ANYTHING other than log on to a Microsoft Office Teams call, get a lesson from a disembodied teacher, then do his best to complete the assignment. No, my Boy would prefer to rush through whatever homework there is and go back to watching YouTube.

Now and then, I look at the print out from the high school and have a minor freakout.

I don’t want to do online school. I don’t want to practice or teach outdoor yoga. I don’t want to sit at my desk and record hours of presentations that will go live on an ascribed date through a virtual meeting platform.

The bug bites are rather endemic to our times, you know? At every turn, minor annoyances pinch us. It’s not a big deal to wear a mask. It’s not a big deal to get your temperature checked at the door of nearly every place. It’s not a big deal to shift to virtual learning; it’s not a big deal to pivot your 15-year career from meeting face to face to meeting virtually. Oh wait, it is a big deal.

All of it is a big deal. Okay, maybe the insect invasion isn’t a big deal, but it symbolizes all of the small frustrations we all face daily. Humans are resilient creatures. We adapt – on the outside. What’s happening to us on the inside? We bravely face each day accepting our “new normal” because we have no other choice. In the meantime, a Marxist organization is hiding behind the Black Lives Matter Movement. People are trying to destroy federal buildings. There is rioting in the streets of Portland. Maybe humans aren’t as resilient as we thought.

My dear friends, it is incumbent upon us to get honest within ourselves. We need to root out our discontent, our collective bug bites, freakouts, and resistance.

Take the frustration and fear to Someone Who Can Do Something About It. The world needs us to shine. Confusing and conflicting information is being reported via our news outlets. No one really knows the truth. But we do. We know that the Truth is in the purity of our hearts, the clarity of our thoughts, and the goodness of our words.

Just for Today
I’m going to get honest with my discontent and fear and ask God to help me clear it out.

Prayer
God, everything is not ok.
While I suit up and show up every day, it’s starting to wear me down. I need your help. You are Entirely Good. Please heal my heart of all it’s frustrations and fear. Shine your light through me so I can help others to shine theirs. Thank you for reminding me that we are all in this together, and you will help us.