The Magic Word

It's not please.

It's not abracadabra.

It's and.

There's a lot going on in the world right now. There are people suffering and people whose lives are in danger.

If you aren't one of those people, you may be feeling some pressure to "stop complaining and be grateful".

You can certainly be grateful for and appreciate what you have. You can be thankful your city isn't getting bombed and your children aren't in danger. AND you can be upset about gas prices or anything else in your life you don't like.

You don't have to diminish your own human experience in order to acknowledge someone else's.

You can support the people of Ukraine, be angry about the horror they are experiencing AND allow yourself to feel the emotions that come with your daily life.

You can be more than one thing and have more than one feeling at a time. All it takes is the magic of the word AND.

You can be grateful you have a job AND want a different one. You can be grateful you have a safe place to live AND want to live somewhere else. You can be grateful your family is safe AND acknowledge when you feel angry or frustrated with them.

You will always be able to find examples of people who have it worse than you. But you don’t have to just suck it up and be happy because you're not in their situation. It doesn't make their lives better. It just makes yours worse.