This obsession with youth is partly because of the fear of death (and patriarchy and capitalism and ableism....)

I see folks on here grieving a “lost year” of their 20s & their expectations of it. You didn’t lose a year. You survived, learned, grew, suffered, had joy. You lived. https://twitter.com/hellolanemoore/status/1347372389169045504

Totally makes sense to grieve your expectations of what 2020 was going to be for you. And also, so much of it has to do (for some) that these are suppose to be “the best years of your life.”

That is something literally sold to you.

I just invite folks to really check in with what they’re grieving, the layers of it. What is becoming years of lockdown with organized abandonment and mass death and isolation from loved ones and financial precarity and missed college/graduation experiences and dating and travel

People are terrified and people we love have or may be dying. We can’t grieve the ways we need the most. We may miss being touched or being able to share dinner with friends.

So much grief. Little & small

And also, you are giving precious things up now so you & others can live

That means there is all the possibilities of life stretching ahead of you.

A life you can shape to nourish and fulfill you based on your expectations, not the narrow ones society has deemed for each age.

Which —let me tell you a secret— life doesn’t go by. Plague or not.

So some questions from your community chaplain who isn’t that much older than you (and loves her 30s, by the way):

What do you need to be well right now?

What brings you joy? What do you need to release? Who and what is your priority? How can you offer yourself grace? Breath?

Life is so fragile and precious. You are a spirit housed in a body and it is a miracle you are alive in blue planet rocketing around a star in an ever expanding universe.

You are alive. Choosing to notice all the miracles of it helps us find meaning in midst of the hardships