How to save the world, maybe just the little piece I can hold in my hand.
First, host a dinner party without an oven, next take Christmas photos the day after “the good hair day”, then get a child to smile sweetly on demand many, many, many times in a row, lastly bribe with ice cream.
I am trying to save the world from the chaos and neglect I see everywhere. I can't read the news, I can't not read the news. I can't leave something imperfect and I can't be a perfectionist about just one thing.
I just want my part of the world to be filled with woodland animals all getting along. Maybe after the realism of stories at French school, or the nature movies we devour on Friday nights; Milo realized that foxes eat bunnies and that perhaps his bedroom is a dangerous place for his playthings. But for moments each day I imagine them at peace,
The pastoral holiday scene of the advent calendar has raccoons that will not up and the garbage bins or peel back the back yard sod. The foxes and owls will leave the bunnies well enough alone. For just a few moments when the red candles flicker and the Christmas song has the sound of bells in it I can imagine all is well. Men aren't praying on women, America isn't ignoring centuries of conflict, politicians aren't turning blind eyes to the needs of real people.
When I save the world, it can be okay to make salad and spend time away from Lego and parenting to just sauté garlic and think about where to put the tiny chickadees with the twig tails. I am saving the world by bringing a human into it with a good sense about the necessity of greens after meals of mostly starch.
Maybe I get hung up over holes in the role of garter stitch because I want my tiny slice of the planet to be good and even and to line up like the click and push of Lego tiles fitting exactly right.
While I roast the squash that no one eats, I try to keep our little plot of land as safe as possible, free from every possible fear. I try to change the air so we can breath deeply, our backs turned to the fires all around us.
inspired by Maya Stein - This is How You Do It