I Can't Save The World. But I Might Have Saved My Dead Mom Last Night

I was really depressed last night. Like on the verge of tears depressed.

Being out of work because of this broken foot has left me with far too much time on my hands to sit on social media and read all the negativity in the world right now.

Last night I was following the live stream footage of North Dakota law enforcement using water cannons on the unarmed water protectors of Standing Rock. It was below freezing and these peaceful activists protesting the Dakota Access pipeline were getting doused with water and tear gas.

As I was watching the live feed, one of my yoga friends was en route to Standing Rock to support the water protectors in any way she could. She wasn't sure what she could do to help, but she knew she had to do something.

Add to that the shit show of an election we just had, the vitriol being thrown around by both sides of politics, the uncertainty of the next four years, the news that four different police officers in four different cities had been shot in just one day and it all began to overwhelm me. There is so much darkness in the world right now and I feel helpless.

I finally realized I just needed to put my phone down and take a break from it all. There was nothing I could do at that moment.

Except say a prayer and a quiet meditation.

I felt a little better after my meditation and thought maybe I could rest now.

As I finally lay down in bed, with the news of the day turned off, the cat who had been napping suddenly got up and started sneaking up onto a bug she saw on the wall.

Oh yeah, just what I need right now. A spider. Probably a deadly one.

But, no. It was a ladybug. It was 37 degrees outside and there was a ladybug in my room.

My sister always says it's our mom visiting her when she sees a ladybug.

Oh no! The cat was going to eat my mom!

I got a tissue and ever so gently nudged my mom/ladybug onto the tissue. But what should I do with her/it? I can't put her/it outside she will freeze to death. I can't leave her here the cat will eat her.

So I took my mom/the ladybug into the bathroom and gently lay her down on my counter for the night. I even told her "stay in here away from the cat."

Then I returned to my room and told the cat "don't eat mom."

Seriously, I think this is the point I lost a bit more of my sanity.

If you don't know about the Dakota Access Pipeline and why it is being protested, The Guardian, an independent and reliable news source, has this easy-to-read post on what is happening and why. It's important to note that the original pipeline would have run through Bismarck, North Dakota. It was moved south of Bismarck to "protect wells that serve the municipal water supply". In other words, it is an environmental hazard and the citizens of Bismarck successfully fought against it. So the Army Corps of Engineers moved it to federally protected tribal lands.

If you are also following the activities at Standing Rock, here are the important phone numbers you can call and voice your opinion:

North Dakota Governor 701-328-2200

Amnesty International 212-807-8400 (ask them to send representatives to Standing Rock to assess and report on the treatment of the water protectors by our government)

White House Public Comment Line  202-456-1111