Toxic Positivity?

These are challenging times. Shootings and never-ending Covid out in the world. Closer to home, we had the threat of tornadoes today, and clients have reached out over health problems, legal struggles, bad breakups, lost jobs, and a lost pet. And that’s just Wednesday! Tom and I went on a road trip yesterday to meet with his surgeon about a knee operation, and during the two hours out, we listened to the news. On the two hours back, we listened to music, and I remarked about how much lighter and happier I felt.
I’m striving to BE the light as best as I can in these tumultuous times. One way I’m trying is through social networking.
I have made it a personal goal to lift Twitter out of negativity (quite a task!), and I’ve loaded up my post-planner with spiritual tips, advice for coping in hard times, and stress relievers that I have learned over the years. I’m not as frequent on Instagram (I just don’t think in pictures and videos, although I’m trying!), but I’ll catch up eventually. Both are @jgordonbramer, by the way. As a writer, the thing I really want to do is write and not just promote my writing. But as a tarot card reader, the other thing I am(!), it’s good to have a presence, and it’s good to reach out and help others in the context of a reading or out in the digital world. It can only be good Karma to give it all away, right? 😉
I promise you that I have not been lazy over this long absence from the blog. I have been writing, editing, and revising furiously. Last month I signed a publishing contract with Inner Traditions for my book, The Tarot Diaries, which should be out sometime next year. These are real-life tarot client stories and experiences, taken from my journals, with all names and identifying details changed. They are stories that will hopefully educate, entertain, and maybe even inspire. More information is forthcoming. I am pretty excited, and this publisher is looking at some of my other writing projects as well (hence, lots of scrambling and long hours in front of the computer when not at the tarot table).
As you may or may not have noticed, I have updated this website, although there are still some glitches to fix, especially on the Media page. I had planned to quickly add more years of poems to the Decoding Sylvia Plath pages, but these may be considered for publication, so I am holding tight just now.
I hope that whatever and however you are doing, you can find some moments of peace and happiness where you are. Try turning off the news for a while and just live your life. You will find that life is a much better experience. This is not toxic positivity. This is sanity.