I’ve been asking essential workers how they’re doing. In the checkout line at Woodman’s, “How are you all doing?” The response: “It’s stressful. We keep waiting for a break, but the break doesn’t come. And if we get time off, we can’t go anywhere.”

At my doctor’s office, “How are you holding up?” As the nurse jots notes in my file, she explains, “I imagine I’m doing the same as everyone. We want this to be over. We want to wake up in the morning and realize it was all a bad dream.”

People in my life, who previously embraced the still, quiet, intimacy of quarantine, are now at loose ends, experiencing stress, free-floating anxiety, anger, exhaustion, and sleep disruption.

This is normal! We’re so harsh on ourselves. And that harshness can leak outward. But here’s the reality: we’re living through a global pandemic, financial stress, political drama, and health-care fears (to name just a few). It’s okay to not be okay.

I’m feeling vulnerable and raw, sometimes impatient, sometimes sad (deep heart ache), sometimes angry, often grateful, and occasionally tired for no reason.

We need refuge spaces where we can show up as-is; where we don’t have to hold our s**t together; where we can feel what we feel. In these courageous, beautiful spaces, we express vulnerability and pain. We say what’s real and true for us, without blame and judgment.

Please know that this is one of those spaces. Contact me, share in the comments, or write anonymously on my website.

How are you doing? How are you holding up? What’s alive in your heart?