Unclench

Had to remind myself to unclench my jaws on Friday. I cannot possibly have clenched jaws for the next four years. Also reminded someone else of this but she said that if she unclenched, bawling would follow. Sometimes you just need to bawl.

Least favorite sentence right now about DJT -- I didn't want him to be president but I want him to succeed.

Seriously, succeed at what?...

Wanted to go swimming on Friday -- my new swimming day until January yoga immersion is complete but the founder of Humans of St. Louis, Lindy Drew, was giving a talk at the Regional Arts Commission and I reasoned that the Humans talk would not happen again anytime soon but that I could go to the pool another day.

There was a lot to admire and enjoy about Drew's talk, including listening to her story about pursuing a career in photography. She went to school to be a doctor but enjoyed photography much more.

I really liked something that the new parent/human in the picture below said about sleepless nights, crabbiness and not getting caught up in little, frustrating moments but zooming out to look at the bigger picture.

Wasn't sure if I'd have time to go swimming today but I managed to squeeze it in and, of course, the first thing that I thought about was The Moth story about Black people swimming in a hotel pool and the staff responding by pouring acid into the pool.

I finished swimming and walked into the locker room and the main lifeguard got this mischievous look on her face then wiped her hands on the beach towel that I had around my next. She usually sneaks into her kids lockers to do that. It's hard to explain but that little moment made me laugh and relax..

Oh yeah, did you hear the one about the St. Louis Public Library?  The city library, for real?

Here's one of my favorite Instagram's right now:

Because fuck the patriarchy. Talking with New York friends who are scared, I said maybe we're okay.  We're here.  The farce of reconstruction, the whiplash against the civil rights movement that embedded systemic oppression, is now this.  This, organized hate, oppressive, propagandist mindswill and negation of human rights and American values. But we know.  The world is female, brown, queer, and made of immigrants.  We won't stand for this shit.  neither will our children. See you in the morning, sisters.#womensmarchmn #womensmarch

A photo posted by Karin L Burke (@coalfury) on Jan 20, 2017 at 5:53pm PST