I don’t know about you, but anxiety doesn’t seem to solve anything.
I woke up at 4 AM and couldn’t go back to sleep. My head seemed to be spinning with unmade plans and unfulfilled commitments. Not to mention all the other stuff…
It’s hard not to feel anxious right now, given all the things going on in the world around us.
I don’t want to throw my head in the sand, but I also know how easily I get sucked into the news and the anxiety. It can easily become overwhelming and triggering.
And for many of us, this moment doesn’t feel entirely new.
As the daughter of a southern Baptist minister, I grew up in an environment built by men and ruled by men. And I trusted those men despite the many reasons I had not to. Authority was unquestioned. Obedience was virtue. Silence was safety.
So when I witness power being misused now, when I see voices dismissed, truths distorted, and dignity treated as expendable, something old stirs inside me.
I know I am not alone in this.
So this morning, unable to sleep, watching the sun slowly rise, I was left thinking about what can counter this growing anxiety.
And I found my way to love. Harper Lee, the author of To Kill a Mockingbird shares this in a lesser-known essay that was published in Vogue in 1961:
“Any act of love, however – no matter how small – lessens anxiety’s grip, gives us a taste of tomorrow, and eases the yoke of our fears.”
She reminds us that with love, all things are possible. Love restores, love transforms, love purifies.
And love heals. This is not an oversimplified solution to horrendous ills. But it’s a way for us to move through it, a near act of rebellion. When the culture is suffering and asking us to respond with outrage and fear and paralyzing levels of anxiety, what happens if we choose love?
I’m not talking about grand gestures.
I’m talking about checking on a friend.
Listening without correcting.
Softening instead of hardening.
Choosing, again and again, not to let fear be the loudest voice in the room.
Perhaps love begins there, and maybe this serves as some form of healing from the anxiety. Maybe choosing love can be its own kind of resistance.