joyful2beeblogs

Please read this strictly as my opinion of what was best for me and may help someone else. Since I moved into my condominium almost ten years ago, I found myself in the same routine every morning. Actually I was in a rut! Here’s the “routine.” I fix my cat’s medicines, give her her crushed half pill with a little canned food; a gel like vitamin on a dental treat on top of her canned food. I take my medicines, then give her her asthma inhaler, her liquid arthritis medicine in a spoon and two dental treats. Then I get on the computer to check my emails, Facebook, whatever needs checking briefly, while I usually listen to the news. I get my breakfast while listening to the local and national news between 6 to 8 AM. I continue watching until about 8 and then talk with a friend for a while.

I am almost always left with anxiety or sadness when the news is over. After watching a sad array of suffering, flooding, blizzards, hurricanes, fires, Covid, cruelty (to people or animals), robberies, accidents, murders, deaths, and wars I feel helpless to do anything about most of it. There’s also climate change; the increasing heat in our country and some other countries, which is killing the grass, plants and other animal life.

Especially Africa with its increasing heat is losing not only certain plants and grasses (which many wild animals eat). Some of the wild animals and livestock of the people are dying because their food is dying. One of the saddest things is some of the elephants, who eat grass and plants, are dying!…. I always feel probably the way you do now after looking at these horrors. I feel sad and helpless for those who are suffering.

Sure the news staff are always friendly and cheerful with each other and there are often one or two spots, where they show something cute, wonderful or uplifting. But they don’t help me feel better. Don’t get me wrong, the news has a good purpose. But we can choose when it is best for us to watch it or listen to it on the radio.

Do you know what I mean? So several mornings ago, I decided it was time for a change. What good is there in starting every day off with sad or tragic incidents? I am over 70 years old; have back problems and a knee problem, and I am not rich. I can do absolutely nothing personally to help the world, other than be kind and helpful to those around me. I can pray that God will intercede for those who are suffering and help them. But I realize it is true: “Good things do happen to good people sometimes.” And sometimes good things can come from disasters. But I cannot directly affect what the world is going through.

If you are affected by the news like I am, see if you can find something else to read or watch in the mornings. I found a more positive way for me to start my day. I do the same routine with my cat and myself first. But I don’t turn on the news! I always felt that I should be aware of what’s going on in my world. If we were about to have a war, or a hurricane or some disaster, I would certainly want to know about it. But I don’t have to watch the news in the morning! Why start my day off with depressing news! Instead I find brief uplifting videos on YouTube. I can learn things from it. There are funny topics, historical, financial, local activities, meditations, podcasts and music to enjoy.

So at supper time I watch one local news show and one world news show. They have some of the same topics but for some reason it doesn’t feel as bad as it did listening to it in the morning. I do want to be an informed American but not a depressed American.

I think I feel more vulnerable in the morning to all of the tragedies. But if the news doesn’t hit me as hard in the evening as it does in the morning; why not watch the news in the evening. Then I follow the news with something I enjoy.

Life is too short to get bogged down in the news first thing in the morning. We all have or have had a friend who was suffering, sad, broke, grieving, or overwhelmed. We have seen the terrors of war already and the killings and so forth. Let’s try to help someone we know or someone we don’t know. Smile at people, offer a hand if they need it. Let people know what a good person you are. I love the sticker at the top of this. If everyone tried to follow through on it, the world would be a lot better place to live on.