There is a very specific thing the vast majority of the world wants, and the sophisticated word for it is reconciliation.

I don't so much mind the overstimulation leaking onto other areas of my life, but lashing out at the person I love most is the saddening, sobering consequence of a pattern continuing for far too long. Not only are the tasks not handled, but I come home irritable and no fun to be around. It's a lose-lose.

It's really no woman's fault that she feels the need to diet, obsessively work out, or take a drug to lose weight. It is what is not-so-subtly asked of all of us. Especially now, in the most conservative era we've lived through in quite a while. But this is where everyone's got it backwards.

If we perceive that the "big players" - the private-jet-celebrities and the fossil fuel CEOs - aren't doing the heavy lifting, our brain registers our own small efforts as futile. We start abiding by the thought process of "no ethical consumption under capitalism" and call it a day. We aren't necessarily becoming "bad" people, we're just tired of being the only ones trying.

We can’t care about everything at 100% intensity. We just can’t. The physics of the soul won't allow it. And yet, I find myself terrified of the alternative.

Our culture, and often our own psyche, demands constant peak performance. But a peak implies that there is a work-up to the top and a descent back down. Without that structure, its simply a plateau. In seasonal living, we flip this narrative.

As you breathe into your body, notice. Scanning from the crown of your head, slowly down into the neck, your shoulders, your limbs, your torso, down your legs and into your feet...notice. Is there a small tickle in your throat? An impending headache behind your eyes? Does your spine ache from shoveling snow? Do you remember how to feel the backs of your knees? Pay attention to your emotional body, too. Where does the nervousness reside? If you could pinpoint the constant thru

There's another kind of tragedy here, one that takes place on an individual level - the same one I find myself grappling with at this very moment. Why must I wait to hear what my chosen media outlet says about this - or anything, for that matter - before I can form my own opinion?