@elmaxx

You take good care of yourself on that "nice staycation at a tropical place", eh?

We'll be looking forward to your full rise and return in glory, whenever the Omnissiah wills it. 🤞🏻

@ShaneArtBooks

What a beautiful article, that brings many critical names and waves of the movement to the fore. Thanks for this, Shane! A wonderful, grounded history, with so many in-roads for us to build on in our praxis today.

@Jorro @MidnightRider

@corlin @BipolarArtist

I'm putting a pin on this chat for now, while I contemplate a layout for the #Zine, but I'd love a two-pager for our next issue that joins your thoughts on meditation and harm reduction.

Maybe interview format, building from a chain of comments shared on CoSo?

Or a juxtaposition of two wee essays on mindfulness - Damien on internal harm reduction, Corlin on external?

Or maybe 4 pages for all of CoSo's #Buddhists & meditation advocates to share thoughts in harmony? 🤔

@cmskiera

😬 You mean like chestbursters?

@Kaysymmetry

There was a year when I got by with what I referred to as "horse tranquilizers" - not because they were, but because the medication I needed to exist with a modicum of normalcy was right up there when it came to the wallop they packed.

Big hugs, Kay.

You are doing incredible things for yourself in the hardest of times. 💜 It is enough that you are still here, still with us, taking things one breath and step at a time.

@ShaneArtBooks @Jorro @MidnightRider

The Quakers are wonderful, and have a rigorous history of standing up against slave movements and other forms of oppression in the US.

I recently wrote about them in relation to a misused quote by Ben Franklin, though, and learned in the course of my research that there was a window in early Quaker history when they were *very much* a more disruptive lot - and encouraged to be so, to get their message out! The current image of a peaceful Quaker came later.

@Jorro, I thought you might enjoy this lovely piece on Christian #Humanism.

The interviewer, David Brooks, is more elitist in his faith-practice, and his skepticism shows up in some of his questions for Luke Bretherton. Meanwhile, I as a secular humanist disagree with Bretherton on other accords - but either way, I hope this interview offers a refreshing rejoinder to some of the Christian-nationalist rhetoric you seem to be enduring in other spaces.

Cheers! #Religion
https://comment.org/christian-humanism/

@DavidSalo

Amen to that, David.

What incredibly mediocre times.

@Jorro @MidnightRider

I'm strongly of the opinion that atheist/theist "debates" of other eras distracted far too many of us from how much we share.

The way I see it, one's cosmology matters less than what one *does* with it - and I'm deeply thankful to know humanists of most every religious and secular background: people who share a belief that humans have to be agents of change on this planet, in this life, irrespective of what happens next.

🤗 So it's good to share a planet with you, Jorro!

@MidnightRider @Jorro

Just popping in to say that it is super awesome to see CoSonauts having thoughtful, human-first chats across POVs. You all rock.

MR, you know that our religious friends here aren't going to give you an answer that satisfies, because they follow a god-concept that we know is as flawed as the humans who created it.

But look how much love these folks have shown here, in trying to sit with you in hard times! That's a beautiful thing, even if the background myth is flawed. 👌🏻

People get upset by my writing for a few different reasons, but I think my favourite is how some bristle at my use of "we" and "us", as in "some of us" and "we sometimes".

I use this language so as not to dehumanize anyone--*we* are human, even if some of us are extremely hateful.

But it really upsets some to be lumped together like that--and I understand why! However, the moment we deny that a hateful person is human, we make ourselves vulnerable to failing to see how hateful people *happen*.

@IrelandTorin

(British version, if you watch it!)

@IrelandTorin

Nah, no chiding from me about "horrid potentialities". :) I used to have the nickname "Morose Maggie" because I'd always have anecdotes about the grim state of the world, and stats to match, to kill an upbeat vibe at any get-together.

(Never meant to! But it's hard to remember that most people don't like knowing about such things. When you're used to a more pragmatic existentialism, it can be tough to move in a world where folks prefer fairy tales.)

Did you ever see Utopia?

@tyghebright

*overcome. Always a typo somewhere, alas!

@IrelandTorin

This post is even more excellent if you imagine someone speaking these observations aloud during a long elevator ride among strangers. :)

(I mean, one has to spread the word somehow, right?)

@tyghebright, I hope you've had a day that leaves you feeling affirmed in your strength, steady in the knowledge of everything you've overcoming, and full of excitement for the new journey ahead.

What a whirlwind of chaos life dumps at our door sometimes, eh?

But also, what a gift you remain to yourself and your communities, by living your truth and leaning into the dearest parts of existence every step of the way.

May the year ahead reward you immensely. 💜

(If not, we'll give it what-for!)

@stueytheround @Kaysymmetry

🫂 Cognitive distortions suck so much.

I get ensnared by a few of these during downcycles - all-or-nothing thinking, disqualifying the positive, mental filtering (selective intake), jumping to conclusions, catastrophizing, labelling, personalization...

These are patterns of thought that we use to wound ourselves, but *because* they're patterns, it takes time and behavioural retraining to disrupt them.

🫂 Your brain isn't being kind to you right now, Kay. Hold on.

@TheNewsOwl

😬 These are all brilliantly stressful "jokes". You've captured online anxiety well!

#Wellness

Commented on this to a friend this morning. Seeing more of it in the wild today.

Near-election anxiety is on the rise, & it's probably going to manifest in more stress from now until polls close.

You might be avoiding the news & political themes, but people around you might still seem "extra" when talking about other topics, too.

Try to mind your own jitters, & forgive those around you for their volatility.

It's been an awful election.

Take care of your health in this last slog.