The Black Bear Eats More Than Blueberries

Photo by Delaney Van on Unsplash

Our town politics for the last couple of years has been very political.

Honestly, that’s not a strong enough word. It’s been very politicky.

You’ll notice that in that made up word, the last part spells icky.

There’s been name calling. There’s been us and them-ing. There’s been a lot of going after each other.

Here’s the thing. All that anger and hate? It takes up a lot of energy. And we only have so many hours in the day, so much energy to expend, right?

And we don’t want to spend all our energy doing one thing. A black bear doesn’t just eat blueberries. He’ll also eat grubs, some bees, some more insects, some mussels, some bird eggs.

That’s because a diet of just one thing isn’t super healthy.

A diet of just one emotion isn’t super healthy either.

If you look at your life for the last month or week or even day, have you only been eating blueberries? And by blueberries, I mean, are you only feeding aggression, outrage, hate?

Apologies to blueberries there.

Here’s another way to think about it: When you go on social media, are you looking to be outraged or are you looking for goofy dog reels? Or both? When you talk to your friends, are you only talking about the wrongs that are happening and not the rights?

Or maybe just what you are doing in your day? Is it promoting good things? Bad things? Both? Neither?

What could you do to liberate yourself a little more, find a little more stillness, feel a little less enraged? Do you like the us and them sort of way of looking at life? Do you want a little more gray? Sometimes, all it takes is a little tweaking.

---

Note: Our town isn’t JUST about the negative politicky energy right now. I wrote about some beautiful things this weekend here.

Feature: The Beauty of the Fields