It’s…a day.
If this were a work of fiction, I’d have to ask the writers to go back over the plot for today because having the inauguration of a White supremacist fascist felon on the same day as Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a bit much, honestly.
I remember eight years ago, signing up for the Anti-Racism Daily, now Reimagined News, and seeing the words, “Your heart is a muscle the size of your fist,” I think at the top. (I may be mis-remembering. The memory part of my brain is a warren of weird connections.) I hadn’t googled past that, but then I learned that lyric is from a 2011 folk-punk song written by Patrick Schneeweis, and performed by Ramshackle Glory. (It’s also the title of a book by Sunil Yapa, released in 2016).
I hadn’t listened to the song in full until this week. (If you seek it out, TW/CW for the lyric content).
Your heart is a muscle the size of your fist
Keep on loving, keep on fighting
And hold on, and hold on
Hold on for your life
My brain, see above re: memory warren, then switches to “Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on.” It’s a terrifically weird jukebox, my brain. The remixes are astonishing.
I do appreciate the message to myself: Hold on. Keep loving, keep fighting, know what you’re working towards. Hold on.
Bree Bridges said on Bluesky on January 14th,
Inviting everyone to join me on Jan 20th in doing one thing you love, and one thing they would hate.
Joy & spite, y’all. Joy and spite.
And I loved this reply from writer and artist Marika Bailey:
We do not need to be an audience for fascist pageantry. Witness your neighbors, your communities, your loved ones. Witness all we need to protect. Be present where you are, dig your toes deep into the earth, plant yourself to endure the oncoming storm.
As Gwendolyn Brooks wrote in her poem “Paul Robeson,”
That time
we all heard it,
cool and clear,
cutting across the hot grit of the day.
The major Voice.
The adult Voice
forgoing Rolling River,
forgoing tearful tale of bale and barge
and other symptoms of an old despond.
Warning, in music-words
devout and large,
that we are each other’s
harvest:
we are each other’s
business:
we are each other’s
magnitude and bond.
“We are each other’s harvest: we are each other’s business: we are each other’s magnitude and bond.”
Plant yourself, be present with yourself and others, and hold on.
So: since the writer’s room for 2025 has clearly lost all the plots, I want to ask you: what goodness in your world are you holding on to?
Amanda: Every morning when my alarm goes off, we can hear our youngest cat Fig meowing outside our bedroom door. We open it to unleash what we call the “Kitty Parade.” All she wants to do is lay on my chest and headbutt me, even when I have to get moving for work. She’ll purr and drool and twist around my legs while I’m brushing my teeth. Our two other cats show their affection differently (or not at all in the case of our grumpy old man). The routine of it and affection and clinginess are the biggest bright spot in my mornings. It just makes me so happy.
Lara: After every bottle my tiny prem daughter smacks her lips. It’s so big and expressive and it makes my day.
Sneezy:That thing in the middle of art, food, and community. People will always try to create beauty, find ways to understand themselves, make delicious things, and share all of that with each other. This is a constant throughout time and space. It holds true today, just as it will tomorrow. Remembering that gives me hope and helps me build resilience. Whether it’s aunties excitedly telling each other about a new pork intestine noodle place, noticing a kid with neon pink stripes on their sneakers, appreciating that people planted giant waxy leaves in the park, all of it reminds me we’re not alone, and we’ll always find ways to enjoy and share nice things with each other.
Shana: My best friend is marrying her longtime girlfriend and I’m so excited for both of them.
Me, I’m holding on to my family and my neighbors, and nurturing the connections that help us sustain and thrive – whether that’s heavy lifting (like snow) or sending some cilantro next door so my neighbor can finish dinner.
Most of all, I’m holding on to all of you here, and holding on to this community where we talk to each other about books and everything else.
What about you? What goodness in your world are you holding on to?
Had a good snuggle in bed with the puppy this morning. I’m holding on to the regularness of everyday life – there is snow to be shoveled and there are chickens to be fed. Also working hard on strengthening community connections.
My family is moving at the end of the month and my husband and I are both determined to volunteer and find community where we can in our new town. I also bought myself one cactus in December (I have a horrible track record with plants) and I bought it a fancy pot and named it (Andor – he’s not a hugger) and let myself fuss over it as much as I want. I’m hoping after the move I can find a good sunny home for it in our house and coax it into blooming. I’ve been fascinated by cactus blooms since I was young and one of my favorite movies to watch with my mom was “Cactus Flower.” If I don’t kill it in 6 months, I’m giving myself permission to buy another.
Staying in my pajamas all day, reading in bed, snuggling with my dogs, spending time with my sister. I’ve read that authoritarians want people to be isolated and fearful. I refuse that with everything I am; I choose hope, connection and joy.
I’ve decided to work today and take the holiday later this year. My work involves things the new administration does not like because it provides evidence of things they’d like to ignore. Who knows whether I’ll even have a job or, if I have it, how miserable that job might be with the new administration. Sending love out to everyone out there doing federal work. We know that the work we do supports the American public every day.
Only a Federal holiday, so I’ll be at work – almost as usual.
My boss voted for this horror, so I will be listening to music that annoys her while she’s at work.
I’m spending the day at the pottery studio. Elbow deep in mud, I can’t look at my phone. Plus functional art is extremely reassuring to me, especially at a time when necessities are become luxury. I want art (and like, food, and civil rights, and opportunity, etc) to belong to all of us, not just the rich. Holding a cup that someone else has made is almost like holding hands with them. There’s an idea of community baked into it.
Maybe I’ll bake something first, speaking of love and joy and community and functional artistry…
@Jill Q– Cactus flowers are amazing. I live in AZ, where I get to see them every spring, but their beauty and the way they look like someone just pasted them on the the cacti never fails to astonish me. I hope Andor thrives in your care and that you can get him a companion.
I’m going to the dentist to have a crown replaced today. Hoping they will just be broadcasting annoying music rather than news.
I’m holding on to my therapy goals, which include going back to our local trans support group and getting my gender marker corrected while that is still possible. We will all need each other, particularly in threatened groups like mine.
I don’t live in the US, but we have a right-nutwing, openly racist and fascist party in our government. Luckily here not one party has an absolute majority so the damage the government can do will be limited. Today my heart goes out to you and your country for having to go through this (again).
My cat’s curled up next to me on the couch.
The last 8+ years have taught me to look for organizations that are bigger than me and send my time, money, and what I can think up to them to make a difference. To not take it when someone thinks they can be a jerk in public and get zero pushback because they’re relying on everyone else feeling awkward and avoiding confrontation. To look at things bigger than the here & now so I remember my place in the world and in history. I’m not about to make this easy for the people who would love for people like me & my friends and family to disappear.
And I’m here, with good food, good books, and my cat curled up next to me.
Love & Spite, indeed.
I’m celebrating the ordinary in my life this weekend, finding joy in the little victories with my family and friends. My teenage daughter is getting her braces off today after three years of orthodontics. My youngest son who has anxiety over new experiences, went out for little league this weekend (despite never playing before) and had a blast!
We visited our women-owned, LGBT owned used bookstore yesterday to spend money and commiserate about books. She reminded me that just taking a small moment to compliment someone every day keeps that feeling of isolation from creeping in.
A friend asked this morning how we were going to get through the next four years. Here is my response verbatim: read books for comfort, inspiration, & joy, listen to music, cook & eat good food, keep away from news (although I’ll probably make an exception for the daily wrap-up from BBC World Service), make financial contributions as I can to organizations & causes I believe in, stay off social media (hardly a problem as I’ve never been on it), and comfort myself with the age-old mantra, “This too shall pass”.
And as Crystal said in last week’s WAYR: “So until next time, I am going to echo what I saw someone say on Instagram: “Action is the antidote to despair.” Take care of your brains, turn off the news when it gets too much, and do what you can, without beating yourself up for what you can’t.” Which, I think, sums it up beautifully.
Spending today with the media turned off and making a dinner party with immigrant friends. Continuing solidarity with my Hispanic neighbors and Black coworkers. Getting ready to provide as much pushback as necessary. The cards keep telling me this is not going to last very long. Given that the members of the Reich cannot even agree with each other, we can hope they will spend the next four years fighting amongst themselves and not get anything done.
My congregation is a foundation for me. I need them and I think they need me just as much.
I am reading some good books and my watch a comfort movie today.
I’m having a snow day since as a public librarian I don’t work today. I’m going to make my apartment nicer, put art on the walls, do some reading, have a walk, have a quiet day. Yesterday I was able to have lots of pets with my friend’s adorable dog. At the moment, I’m watching Disney’s Robin Hood.
Also I’ve already created great graphics for the Black History month display that I’ll be putting up next month with the subtitle Black Voices Past, Present and Future. I’m going to be showcasing a real range of books. As well as working towards finding ways to get a range of voices into the library to talk.
Thank you <3
I started doing one of those brain training apps a week or so ago, and they track your mood and sleep. The mood tracker is a Likert scale of 5 emojis from frowning through to a big smile. And I realized this morning that I genuinely couldn’t think of a day in recent memory that I would put my mood as a big smile: I’m just sort of grimly getting through it.
I was lying in bed, trying to convince myself to get on with it today and I looked over and my cat cracked an eye from his nest next to me, and sort of rolled over a bit. He’s 18 years old and for 17.5 of those years, if I touched his tummy, I got kicked or scratched. But in his old age, he’s discovered that he actually really loves tummy rubs. So I’m lying there realizing that it’s far enough through winter that the sun’s actually up when I need to get out of bed, I get to scratch this old guy’s tummy while he purrs and drools, I didn’t have to fight anyone for the blankets, I don’t have to put a bra on today, I’m really interested in my schoolwork (and it’s ok that it’s looking challenging to get hired afterwards, I have time), my friends are having a gif-only conversation in discord that I can’t wait to contribute to …
I’m not trying to be all toxic positivity over here, but how lovely are all the small things in my life? The big things are out of my control and easy to become all consuming, so I’m going to hold on by looking at the good things – not blindly, but gratefully (and probably lay off the dark romances for a minute).
Reading, Hallmark Channel, and College Football Championship. Making a quick chili for dinner.
My bookclub is getting together this afternoon for a day of what WE want, which is: each other, soup and contributing to the causes that matter and fight. Cecile Richards, former head of Planned Parenthood and so much more, died today from brain cancer. We’ll remember her, too.
I did a read-through of Project 2025 (with commentary) on my blog which relieved some feelings. Have been posting other things on government and will continue to do so until I have purged all that. Reorganized my bead collection. Planned a summer vacation to Alaska. Planted a lot of fancy sunflower seeds in the front yard.
Thank you so much for this post. I feel less alone. I’ve been cleaning and organizing at home all weekend, while listening to audiobooks and podcasts, including Smart Podcast.
I watched this morning’s ceremonies of the “peaceful transfer of power” because that part of our national heritage matters to me. But after the just-sworn-in 47th president delivered the first words of his first address, I turned off the news coverage. I’m making some donations to organizations whose values I believe in, and preparing for work… both the work I’m paid to do, and the other kinds of work that I hope will be sustaining for the future.
I’m not in the US but am feeling anxious all the same. #OnlyBeautifulThings on Bluesky has been a real boon today — lots of lovely images flooding the timeline.
I donated to my local library because they just deserve it. I arm/needle knitted a blanket for my daughter. It’s huge and heavy and I think she’ll love it.
I started reading The Small and the Mighty by Sharon McMahon. Regular folk who did extraordinary things. Perfect way to spend a really cold day.
I’ve tried hard to make it a worthwhile day: working out, spending time with a dear friend, appreciating the sunlight in the midst of bone-shattering cold, writing, and reminding myself and my loved ones of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, which he wrote in the midst of almost unimaginable personal and societal despair. But truth be told, I also spent a good deal of today just pointlessly weeping because neither my heart nor my mind can come to terms with what we have just done.
I’ve been listening to Ilona Andrews, Lois McMaster Bujold, and Terry Pratchett audiobooks. Roman, Penric, and Sam Vimes are the guys I’m letting be in charge of my mood right now. Decent human beings, perhaps a tad on the cranky side.
I’m eye-reading some Honor Raconteur Henri Davenforth Case Files because it’s all about the comfort reads. Once in a while I pick up my knitting and make some progress on the yoke of my colorwork sweater. I haven’t indulged in yarn because I really should knit some of what I have, but I did buy myself a pattern book full of glorious designs. (Sari Nordlund’s Softly—Timeless Knits, in case anyone cares.)
Earth is garbage, so I do believe I’ll be abandoning it for space, dragons, shifters, magic users, and fae… and let’s not forget the Night Watch!
I’d intended to spend the morning sewing fleece hats to donate to a hat drive but ended up helping neighbors in my building deal with a plumbing / radiator crisis. Which is another act of service, I guess.
In general, I’m trying to not shut down and instead connect to / find / serve community. I’ve started going to a local sip and stitch and the host is a retired children’s librarian who started the hat drive for refugees that I’m sewing for. So far I’ve made 3 and they’re remarkably warm and satisfying to make.
I also have 35 ish baby cacti that I grew from seeds – they’re all a year old and most are just blueberry sized and they are SO FREAKING CUTE!
Thank you. This post is going in my “Never Forget” feedly folder so I can pull it up when I need a reminder.
I so appreciate this post and the comments. Community is what gives me energy. Took a walk today and the people out at a certain time and saying hello with eye contact made me feel not so alone.
I went to a local drag show last night, and spent a certain time in a long meditation sit with a beautiful cat who never left my lap.
♥️
Thank you, Sarah, and SBs for finding the words I was looking for.
When adults are awful and driving me nuts, which is often, I hold onto the tiny people who haven’t learned to be awful yet, as well as the adults who resist.
I’m a librarian, so I hold hard to my people. The regulars who check back to see if I read that book they recommended; the mom learning everything she can to DM for her kids; the park rangers co-hosting our next programs. The preschooler who’s so quiet I don’t even know she’s playing until I hear her singing to herself. The whole pre-K class falling over themselves at a story with silly noises in it. The baby getting into a visitor’s purse, and the visitor who’s delighted at it.
A small minority of very loud people are awful. Hold hard to the rest.
I kept writing a few words and deleting them, feeling like I had nothing coherent to add to the conversation (which I realize now was anxiety, from our incoming winter storm as well as the Events of the Day). But I kept checking back, and reading & re-reading comments, and I finally realized that was one answer: community. And drawing strength from other people when I need it – so many responses here really resonated.
I have joined a local progressive political action group, and I’m on the committee focused on voting rights. Just being at the meetings is a crucial reminder for me that I am not alone – either in despair, fear, or the “moment of light” that the group leader ends each meeting with.
I am reading Ross Gay’s second book of Delights, and reminding myself to notice the small joys that come each day. The site and the Discord are on that list, every single day.
Yesterday, I took my niece (on a visit to see her boyfriend) and said boyfriend to brunch. I was sorry to see that the TV above the bar was showing the Events, but at least the sound was off and I could ignore it. The restaurant was full of Black and Hispanic families, as were the servers, which made it a choice, but from the buzz of conversations people were focused on each other and the OTT delicious food (seriously, the largest breakfast burrito I have ever seen).
I spent yesterday morning selling Girl Scout cookies with my 7yo. We finally went inside after 4 hours of selling to all the dog walkers, baby walkers landscapers, and canadians on vacation (perks of living in the AZ desert). We made fancy grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch and then watched the Spice Girls movie.
I was reflecting on how I made it through the last time this happened, and I realized that I spent his entire presidency either pregnant (2 babies) or nursing said babies. Hormones! I am not electing to do that again, so I will have to find another means of making it through.
As someone who lives in a neighborhood adjacent to those affected by the CA wildfires, I am reminding myself of the outpouring of support people have offered – so much that many places were no longer accepting physical donations and that over $100 million in monetary donations has been raised so far. We know people who have lost their homes and most of their possessions, and the love and support offered to them by our extended community is inspiring. So, while some in our government act like a-holes, I remind myself that there are many who are willing to help.
(My family was only affected by unhealthy levels of smoke, and we luckily had family outside the affected area who took us in until the air quality improved.)
I found a reading challenge from the Black Feminist Library (posted a couple of weeks ago on Insta) and I realized that this year might be the year I finally tackle some books and authors that I’ve been meaning to read for years: Octavia Butler, bell hooks, Audre Lorde, Alyssa Cole, Nana Asma’u, and others. The idea is to read books that fit 25 out of 40 prompts, though you can certainly read all 40!
I’m going to do some recentering of faith in my life and work on building community and supporting the people I love. It’s just too easy to get distracted and insular and I’ve realized that neither of those things is helpful to me. I’m going to clean my apartment and get ready for Ramadan and learn things that uplift my heart.
(There’s no ceasefire, folks, they’ve just redirected from Gaza to the West Bank – specifically Jenin right now.)
delete my comment – missed the mark, there – my bad
I am going to be loading up Stanley Tucci cooking shows and immersing myself in food and lovely locations.