Stop it and hop it

It’s time to stop pretending.  

It’s time to stop brushing things aside.

It’s time to stop looking at mental health as “having the blues” or “just being sad” or whatever feeble excuse is used.

America could fill 50+ buses with the dead caused in school shooting this year.  In Thailand, yesterday, 36 died, including 24 children.

Who the F$%K kills kids??????

This is not a gun issue.  

This is a mental health issue.

Where and when are we, as PEOPLE, a collective human race, going to stop squabbling over a tiny strip of land somewhere, or some black stuff that comes out of the ground, or who can marry whom and do good and right by each other?

Imagine where we would be as a race and civilization if we collectively worked together, instead of letting 100 some odd billionaires manipulate us against each other for their own jollies. 

Imagine if the collective of Earth worked on getting us to Mars, or acted like a globe to end global warming and dependance on coal and oil, or did anything collectively.

Imagine if we prioritized mental health, family leave, education, equality, and really really worked to end hate, war, and famine.

People would still die.  I’m not some rose glasses sophomoric fool, I know (maybe better than a lot of our readers) that evil exists.  But let me posit this… Would my abuses have happened to me in a world that focused on mental health and a collective globe strategy rather than burying our heads in the sand.

Hell, Simone Biles stopped competing in the Tokyo olympics because she wasn’t allowed to bring some of her psych drugs with her into the country.  Naomi Osaka has said the same about the World Tennis Tour and how difficult it was to traveling and playing on tour because she couldn’t bring certain meds into certain countries.

Maybe we should, as a globe, stop the “War on Drugs” and instead start a war on evil.  A war on greed.  A war on mental health being stigmatized.  

Would that have changed yesterday?  Would 36 families be different and not grieve today?  I don’t know.  Maybe.  I do know that doing nothing and not talking about it and addressing it would fill buses with the dead.  I’d take my chances on trying, though.

In happier news, we saw a frog today walking to school.  Look at this lil guy.  

And then, at the end of the new road, Kiddo held the tape down so I could cross it easier.  I did this for her the other day so she and her little legs could get over.  Monkey see, monkey do!

Also, for a bit of fun today, before I go….

Last night I got a 1am visitor.  She woke up and just needed some attention.  “Bad dreams” was the reason, but I think it was tired and no sounds (thanks Spotify for the 1hr timer) and she just needed to know she was loved and that Mumma and Dada were next door sleeping.  So, up I get and I head to her room for tuck ins and love and getting her back to sleep.  Walking into her room, she is laying sprawled out on the bed, leg hanging off one side, arm hanging off another, she is not centered on the bed, but across a corner.  She’s kind of weeping.  No tears, just a whimpering and crying type sound.  

Dada… I’m Sooooooooooo tired.

OK, let’s get into your sleeping spot and I’ll tuck you back in.

I caaaaaaaannnnnn’t!!!!!!

I scoop her up and lay her down, tuck her in and she’s asleep again before I finish getting her set up and bundled just right.  Her eyes flutter open and she looked at me.  

Can Mumma come do tucks too?

She was just here and kissed you on your fairy saddle.

OK.  Love you Dada.

And she was out and stayed out the rest of the night.

Let’s go, Kiddo… The academy award for best 1am female lead in a tuck in goes to you!!!!!