First Thing That Mattered

March! It’s so hard to believe you’re already here, and yet here you are.

So much of life can feel hard to believe or hard to put into words, am I right? The sensation of joy can sometimes feel indescribable. The feeling of grief can often be hard to explain. Love can blow our hearts right open. And tragedies can come out of the blue and defy our minds or break our souls. Then there is one’s health. Health has so much to do with how we feel about ourselves and the world at large, and yet there’s so much we don’t know about our health or how to care for ourselves. But feeling healthy—having our physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health all in order—is essential if we want to show up as the best version of ourselves, and also feel like everything is okay.

The news of the day often throws us off balance, but thank goodness we have wise voices like Heather Cox Richardson to help us center ourselves and make sense of what’s going on. This week, Heather helped me make sense of the latest political news, as well as our role in what’s happening.

Despite all the breaking news happening in the world around us, it’s often the news in our own worlds that upsets our equilibrium the most. Think about what it feels like when you find out that a family member is sick, or that your child feels lonely or heartbroken, or that a close friend is struggling. These are the times when we need practices, guides, and our community the most. This is when we need roadmaps (like the one The Sunday Paper strives to offer) to help us find our way forward.