The heaviness of the Everything buried me in blankets last week but I’m up again.
The light started to return both to our hemisphere and also to my heart when I woke to the news of One man facing consequences for the atrocities of E****** Island.
Seeing a former prince arrested got me out of bed, and then another week unfolded. And another war.
So I go back to my garden. I sprinkle seeds and check on ladybugs. I pet dogs and listen to birds. And I stare at the buds poking through on my lavender and find myself thinking of my Aunt Betty.
My Aunt Betty was an incredible woman. She was my maternal grandfather’s cousin- a brilliant only child born in an era that did not celebrate daughters.
Aunt Betty was like a sister to Poppa- he went on to have three cherished and celebrated daughters, the youngest named after her.
Betty was SMART. Like, became a professor of business smart. She’d come visit us when the university closed at winter break, and when she got quite old she moved out near us.
When she passed away, I found so many photographs she’d taken of flowers. Flowers and bees. I thought it a funny thing.
“Oh she loved to do that,” my mom told me. And at the time I couldn’t understand why.
And here I am, in 2026, staring at plants and searching for Hope in ladybugs. I think I finally understand.
When the human world is so hostile and corrupt and heartbreaking, it is reassuring to connect with other life. To remember that plants came before us, and flowers promise renewal. Bees are the embodiment of symbiotic systems— and how we can affect positive change just as we go about our days. That we are part of More.
I think of the hostilities and challenges Aunt Betty faced: within her own family, within academia, within the workplace, out in the world; no wonder flowers and bees brought her peace and joy.
Like my Aunt Betty, I do not stare at the plants to disappear from the fight. It is to recharge for the long road ahead of us.
I hope today you can find some peace and/or joy.
Keep breathing, you are loved by me and others. (Plus there are flowers and bees)
Pretty Good Ugly 