Don’t give up. Don’t freak out. Freaking out helps no one. Following every single atrocity helps no one. Stuffing your heart, mind, and soul with pain helps no one. Be aware of the suffering. Be aware of the stakes. Then move away from the terror for a moment. Breathe. Center. Pray if that’s what you do. Breathe again. Take a drink of water (I hope your water is clean). Eat something (I hope you have access to nourishment). Sleep if need be (I hope you have a safe place to re

As humans: We make time for what is important. We take time for what we need. We mark time. We spend time. And sometimes, time spends and marks us, too. Our lives are created in bursts of peaks and valleys, incandescent light and velvet darkness. When your life span is less than one hundred years, one decade can feel like an age… But what of the lives of tortoises? And what of the lives of fruit flies or bats? And what of the lives of the stars? Or this planet on which we rev