Words according to Brooke, Co-Founder and Boss Lady of Raven Vanguard
Write? Me? Wrong. I just don’t do that; well not in the same way he does anyway. Who’s he? My Husband and Raven Vanguard Co-Founder, that’s who.
I don’t write, was my short, but honest, answer to my Husband when we first started discussing the idea of all of us here at Raven Vanguard taking turns writing in connection with what we now call our Weekly Once-over. We planned that the Once-over should be somewhat topical, so Husband suggested signing up for The New York Times’ Morning Briefing, and CNN’s 5 Things as a way for us to keep pace with the world around us.
In my head, I am thinking I gave up writing many years ago, pretty much right after graduating from college. That’s why I went to art school, so I didn’t have to write to make my mark on this world, right? In fact, I don’t know if I ever really picked it up in the first place. I surely don’t consider myself a person that communicates well with writing. Can I doodle something for you instead? Happily!
Ok, Husband, (he really should know me by now), I do things my own way. If I’m told or asked to do something one way, I usually do it another. Consider it my rebellious nature, my means of self-expression. Or let’s call it my creative, out of the box way of interpreting “directions.” So whatever the exact reason, or excuse, I’m taking my very own spin on this Weekly Once-over thing. So, no current events or hot topics from me, I’ll leave that up to the rest of the Team. Maybe He knows this, and it’s his secret way of making me NOT write about current events! Ah ha! He thinks he is so clever! Not! Nice one. The truth is - I have to stay away from current events.
What? I don’t watch the news. I can’t. Just can’t? Well, I could...but I’ve made a conscious decision not to. You see, I do more of a glance or glossing over to see what’s safe to read. Safe? I know...it seems a bit kooky. I’m getting to my point, I promise- just hold on a minute longer. I approach news sites similar to how I watch a scary movie (not a fan of those either), with one hand close to my eyes. Weird? Sure. Reason? I’m sensitive, really sensitive, and susceptible. Do I cry reading the news? No, it’s different. It sets a tone, an energy, and mostly a heightened level of anxiety, almost a feeling like something is wrong, and you don’t know why, and you can’t or don’t know how to fix it.
It starts making me so concerned about where our world is headed and what the future generations are going to have to deal with, that I find it all gets somewhat paralyzing. I could go on and explain why this happens and what it does, but I’m not going to. I’ll let that be for now, so I can get to my real point of this “weekly” once over: creating your own reality. Ok, Husband, I’m sure you’re starting to regret asking me to do a “weekly once over” now! I can picture it now, Tom, shaking his head as he reads this. Love it. Love him.
Creating your own reality you say? Sounds lovely? Alright, I not trying to get all spiritual on this post today- but think about it for a minute. As much as I would love to say everything is all rainbows and unicorns, there is a reality- and a harsh one at times. Everyday shit happens, sad shit, bad shit, evil shit, and just plain old stupid, dumb-ass shit. But, and more important, good shit happens every day too, I mean really good and most excellent shit.
Creating your own reality doesn’t necessarily mean pretending you are bouncing in the clouds with the Care Bears or Pinkalicious all day. Sounds extremely fun though, and I would be the first to sign up for that play date. But, what it really means is we become our thoughts; as the great Buddha once said “What you dwell upon you become,” if you are thinking about bad or negative things, you’re going to become “that” negative person. You don’t have to pay much attention to the news. Nope. There, I gave you permission to ignore it! I so often feel like society is saying we have to be well-versed in current events to be an informed and contributing person of society. No, what we have to do as good humans of society is focus on the good wherever we can find it and pass it along. And sadly enough, the hot current news event topics aren’t about people doing good things and are rarely about the good little things. Reasons for that? I think I would be better off communicating that one with a doodle.
Back to the little things- imagine if everyone, every day spent the amount of time that they focus on negative hot daily topics by just doing something kind for someone else or the planet? It seems like those rainbows and unicorns might start appearing after all.
So what got me on this reality topic today? Well, my Step Daughter's soccer game was against a team of deaf students, most of whom had a total hearing loss. As I sat there on the bleachers, I couldn’t help but think about the challenges that someone who is deaf has to overcome on a daily basis, especially with playing a team sport- not being able to hear your coach, your teammates, your opponents, the referees, the fans cheering, or the wind in the trees. But in my typical fashion, I always try and look at the bright side, thinking that when there is a deficit in one area, there is always an abundance in another. All of this led me to the concept of creating your own reality. Everyone's existence is so vastly different, some people can’t hear, some people can hear, but we all choose what to hear, and I choose to hear the good, and I choose what to listen too.