Food For Thought: Apathy
Thank You All For Your Presence Here
I have posted on Notes a couple of times since Christmas night that I tested positive for COVID on Christmas and I am now in recovery mode. I’m feeling a little better today, it’s day three and I just had gotten the booster vaccine two weeks ago today, so this is what is called a breakthrough case. It seems to be fairly mild, thankfully. I wanted to take some time and let you all know, my friends and readers that I will be back soon with new posts.
If you read Words and Pictures by Pamela Leavey on a regular basis you know that I am a prolific poster who typically has a new post up at minimum three times a week.
I am reposting this edited version of this essay from a year ago December 30, when I had just under 400 subscribers. This newsletter has come a long way since then and I am so grateful for every free subscriber here. I am so grateful for every paid subscriber here and I am so grateful for a every cup of coffee and Pay Pal donation received. I am, as I say here often, so grateful for your presence here, it is because of you all that I am here sharing my work on a regular basis.
Now, on to today’s edited re-post. I hope it resonates with you.
A few years ago I had a friend who was struggling with a lot of personal — family problems and struggles.
It seemed more like a landslide of troubles for this friend. A landslide that had been ongoing for a few years. Each time he tried to get his footing, another rock tumbled in his path.
I understand that pattern of life very well, for I have suffered from the effects of more than a couple of landslides in my life. In fact landslides tend to be common in my life.
What always saved me was my ability to pull myself up and out of the mire of rocks and stones, and refuse to feel apathetic about my life and the circumstances and situation around me that weighed me down.
Apathy is a cruel emotion that masks itself in the guise of “I don't feel sorry for myself, I don't give a shit about anything.”
But, therein is the truth, because when you “don't give a shit,” you are indeed feeling sorry for yourself and not caring about anything is your protective guard wall that you wrap around yourself instead of a pair of loving arms.
It is the apathetic person that needs friends, and keeps themselves closed off from relationships.
It is the apathetic person who is welled up with grief and knows not how to express it.
And thus, happiness and joy escape the apathetic person.
Sometimes there is no talking to the apathetic person, they don't want to hear about the things they can do to “fix” their lives.
Staying stuck in the mire is sadly where they may want to be, though deep down inside there is often a hidden desire to be loved, for is that not what we all long for?
Love.
The world needs more compassion.
People need to work together to help each other through tough times.
I’ve thought a lot in recent weeks how hard it would have been for me throughout my surgery recovery last December, without my daughter to help me.
When a person struggles alone through tough times, it is so hard. I know this because I raised my daughter alone with very little help from anyone. It was not easy.
I struggled through so much during those years and beyond including living below the poverty line much of the time that I was raising her. In fact, I still struggle with that, living on the edge of poverty.
Indeed, it has been my own experiences with personal landslides that set me on my spiritual path back in the early 1990’s after a series of loss that included my mother, my first business, my daughter’s father, and then my father, along with a move from some town Massachusetts to Los Angeles. All of these things and so much more took me down the path that I now traverse on a daily basis, fostering acceptance, loving kindness, compassion, and tolerance that I learned from a variety of spiritual paths including Buddhism, Shamanism, A Course In Miracles and Wicca. The thing I learned with each of these forms of spirituality and others that I studied was that the message is always the same. It is all about love. Love is everything.
At times I have felt a lot of apathy in my life. Because struggling makes a person grow weary of hanging on. But I got through because all in all, I am quite tenacious, as a dear friend once told me a few years back. It was quite a complement in fact to be told that he admired me for my tenacity. I hold those words close. And, I encourage you all if you are struggling to dig deep and find your own tenacity. I think we all have tenacity waiting for us when we need it.
I am leaving you all with this little song about hanging on through the tough times. It’s a favorite of mine. Do enjoy…
Namaste... Pamela
As always the comments are open… Please feel free to leave one! Let’s talk about apathy and the struggles of life and let’s talk about what everyone needs in life — Love!
May your day be filled with light and love. Be kind to one another, Dearest Readers!
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Wishing you all a blessed and beautiful day today… Remember to breathe when things get stressful and as always, be kind to one another. As I like to say, “Be in the moment and go with the flow.”
Glad you are mending from Covid.
Apathy is a difficult place to land. If I hit there, at times like that, all I seem to need is someone to sit with me, until I can observe what has pushed me it of my normally present state. A month ago it was the thought of having the high risk spinal surgery. With no idea if it would actually help me. Once I decided to hold off on that, the weight of my situation lifted enough so that I could see clearly once again.
Hopefully you feel better soon Pamela and may your days be brighter figuratively and literally as we turn the corner from the Winter Solstice.