Life is already filled with so many natural disasters. It breaks one's heart sometimes, how many added traumas we heap upon one another, too.

There are now 40 dead from a landslide that buried folks alive in a humble department in Colombia, which has so much other strife as well.

It is such an extraordinary thing to lean into compassion in a world that routinely takes so much from us so quickly.

Hug your loved ones. Never miss a chance to tell them how much you care.

https://youtu.be/dm6nEWF_k8Q

Coming back from the park as all the vendors set up for ciclovía Sunday. 💛

#TimeToWork

If we all belong to the #CoSoverse... 🤔

What's your quirky superpower?
What "accessories" would go with your action figure?
What league do you belong to here?
And who or what's your greatest nemesis?

#RandomThoughts

Honestly, these horses have better running etiquette than many people here. 😂

(Morning, CoSo!)

I'm at that "afraid to finish" part of the editing process again.

Going to take a walk and sneak up on the manuscript from behind on my return.

Sometimes you just can't let the darned things see you coming. 🙃

Last fall I was really struggling, and I signed up for two extra volunteer tasks that involved "peopling" in the middle of that struggle. WHY, I asked my weary brain. WHY are you making me people when I can't.

But today that part of my brain is sipping tea SO SMUGLY, because my added volunteer gigs really helped me to remember my skills / value to my communities.

FINE, brain: you win this round.

Now to put it to work finishing these darned novel revisions... 🙃

#AmEditing

As much as I have tedious run-ins on the street, some also remind me how lonely so many of us are, & how many struggle to connect at all.

Today a cabbie who waits at a spot I pass daily mustered the courage to speak to me... by saying the obvious: "I see you pass by here every day!"

To which I paused & said "Yes...?"

And the deer-in-the-headlights look he had then! 🤦‍♂️

Finally he said "I'm here every day too!"... which made me realize he hadn't thought beyond an opener.

"A" for the attempt? 🙃

Also hello and good morning!

Peace is a process and a mentality, more than an outcome, and there will always be people trying to disrupt both.

May we be thankful for peace in our homes, if we have it - and always strive to extend its reach.

No one lives their best life in war.

The Ecuador situation is wild.

Peru first blocked the border to keep key cartel figures from escaping, and Colombia did too - an extremely rare move, since Colombia hasn't even done this level of blockade with Venezuela.

And the blockade is now so intense that foreigners need an apostilled 5-year criminal record check if they want to enter Ecuador for the next while. That is a huge hurdle - but these are wild times. Ecuador's in a serious internal war.

It's been a hard few years for so many.

It's a heartbreaking thing, among atheists.

He should know better, but he spent so much of his life raging against theism that he never built a better praxis for himself, of wonder for the brief time we get as conscious beings in the cosmos. It's possible to be atheist and still tethered to toxic religious models about what a life "should be".

I grieve routinely how much time he frittered away on cruelty, hate, & narcissim, when he could have deepened in delight at the wonder of life itself. 🌌

Every now and then I try to bond with my very difficult father.

I shared a note yesterday telling him my next novel is almost ready to submit to my agent.

As per usual, he ignored the notice (he calls it "parental envy", which keeps him from celebrating any success on my side) & sent along his usual random death notice, which always serves as a tacit lament about how his own life is near its end (and has been for decades)--implying that everyone needs to cater to his fears of mortality first.

@Alfred

BLINK THREE TIMES IF YOU NEED HELP, ALFRED.

@th3j35t3r

@Alfred, is @th3j35t3r giving you guff? Are you okay? Are you feeling ill? Do you need to make deranged 5-7 revisions to a CoSo site review?

It's strange, but I have such a harder time with feminized shows about trauma than most real-world violence, which I can view without flinching. I have seen so many videos of male persons cruel to each other, brutalizing each other, murdering each other, & brutalizing & murdering female persons, too--& always with stupid justifications around religion, ethnicity, & plain old sexism.

But some "women's shows" have all of that.. & somehow create space for hope, too.

HOW, I routinely want to know.

Man, I just want to give everyone who's had a rough week such a hug.

We have people SHINING this week too, and I'm so happy for them (for you!) in all their glorious successes - but I also hope everyone else is being extra kind with themselves through these hard, confusing last few days, too.

You are doing the best you can in a world that rarely has its own house in order.

Give yourselves the grace and patience you extend so freely and so often to so many others, eh?

💙 It matters. As do you.

😂 You heard it straight from @BosmangBeratna: if you like it, it's yours.

Ergo, I now own this wee video reminder, because I like it a *lot*. 😁 Happy creating, ya (fellow) nerds!

https://youtube.com/shorts/ZIQ3ekNkF1w?si=rZePVq7sLI1lV2th