63 Comments

This is absolutely gorgeous. And this American thanks you for it. My heart is hurting today.

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You are not alone.

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Ditto!

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Thank you for this. I have spent the morning crying, talking to my therapist, feeling total despair. And then going out to put birdseed in the bird feeder I thought - joy is resistance. I can not let this steal my joy in the world. Your writing, as always, helps.

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I love "Joy is resistance." Thank you:)

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That's lovely. I need to step outside again as well. The heat makes it feel all the bleeker but I know there's still so much joy & beauty to be found.

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"Joy is resistance"...THANKYOU

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Thank you, Katherine for this! You just confirmed all that I have been thinking this morning as I wrestled with the news! The Sun was shining, a little Chickadee was feeding on our suet! Nature continues and well continue to offer it to us. I’ve been subscribed to your Substack for a couple of years ever since I read Wintering your writings have continue to offer, hope connection, love of life and solace to the soul. When I read you’re offering a few minutes ago, I felt yes it’s time to subscribe and support you and your work so thank you. I live in Indiana, And moved here from Northern Ireland eight years ago Just immediately after Brexit, And of course that November was the election here. So 8 years on, the sun is still shining, The birds continue to sing and I can still breathe! Alma

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Thank you!

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"It is just the dying of an illusion." Oh. Yes.

Thank you for creating some space here to feel together today.

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I cried 8 solid hours of a train ride home today. Once here I canceled subscriptions to the New York Times and Washington Post. My cardiologist has given me a lifespan of 5 years. I cannot spare one moment of those five years witnessing evil. Instead I will remember the wisdom of Baldwin.

"I never have been in despair about the world. I’ve been enraged by it. I don’t think I’m in despair. I can’t afford despair. I can’t tell my nephew, my niece. You can’t tell the children there’s no hope."

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Baldwin might just save us all 🤍

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“Meet the world as it is today” Thank you. Yes, dark as it feels, it is not all bleak. I have a dog who truly “meets the world as it is” and he finds much to delight in--a discarded pizza crust, a belly rub, a cat to chase. I can learn from him. And from you. Again, thank you!

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Thank you Katherine. How I was hoping to hear from you and once again this is a balm and a blessing in a day full of despair. Thank you for clearing the plastic you did. Thank you for reminding us of greater timescales. Thank you for holding all of us a bit in our pain today.

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Bless you for this.

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"There are grand cycles at play that we can't always read." Thank you for this, it's what I feel in the face of vastness, especially when I see arches, hoodoos, canyons, and other rock formations in my home state of Utah that awe with the sheer enormity of time it took them to erode in exactly that manner. What a magical moment, that other person on the beach sharing the fossil she found with you! Combined with the care you took to do the hard work of collecting that plastic, the crumbs of our collective thoughtlessness. Thank you again for sharing your own experience of what many of us here in the US are feeling, and offering the comfort in the way only you can.

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Yesterday I saw a bald eagle sitting in the oak in the pasture and last night a shooting star. I took them as good omens. Maybe they still are, just not for the immediate future. Maybe they’re just reminders that the world -the universe- is much much bigger than all this. I’m going to try to carry those omens with me and keep on the lookout for more little moments of “Enchantment”😉. Anything that helps, after all. Thanks for your words. They never fail to help.

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A very good piece. It’s striking as the analysis begins to see how easily a similar scenario in 4 years time could return the Tories to power if Labour doesn’t connect with those who feel dispossessed. We have work to do here. But I don’t have the stomach for politics right now, just for doing what I can, when I can, in my own back yard. And being creative, which is all-important. The arts and humanities are being decimated in this country, and that sows fertile ground for disaffection

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Thank you for this timely and compassionate post, Katherine!

This morning I cried, journaled, meditated, walked the dog, went to Tai Chi class. I am dressed in all black today- unusual for me. Thankful to have already scheduled time with my daughters tonight. It doesn’t feel like it now, but “all shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well” wrote a woman who lived through darker times than ours.

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I am in pain. But I know that I, and many other Americans, will turn our pain into action and resolve. That is a comfort.

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I needed this. Thank you, Katherine. ❤️

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Thanks for the lovely piece, Katherine. Fossils and geology are my go-to place for perspective when times are tough. Today I also went to the sea for comfort. Across Admiralty Strait and the entrance to Puget Sound I saw the firm line of the North Cascades with new snow on their peaks. Unlike the gray skies on my side of the water, the peaks to the east were lit up with sunshine. I wouldn’t want to read too much into this symbolism—I feel a bit done with hope for the moment—but it was still beautiful and brought me a sense of awe and some peace. Mountains persist. Twenty minutes later, as I was walking back to my car, I heard the sounds of screaming in the water. Thanks to you, I knew immediately that some women far down the beach, offshore in cold water, were expressing their feelings. (Which was good, because I hadn’t brought my phone and wouldn’t have been able to call for help had they been in real trouble.) So we go on, all of us still together, somehow. Reading all the comments today warms my heart.

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Beautiful thoughts - thank you for writing them down and for sharing. Today we grieve. Tomorrow we pick ourselves up and fight for all the things we hold dear.

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