Start Today part 2: We have to move forward

I get that it stinks.  It all stinks; all of the things we need or are used to that have changed.  But every one of us will need to come to a point where we accept that it all *has* changed.  We can’t cling to things that *now* will risk our lives or the lives of others.  From the trauma survivor stand-point:
The event (though we can’t view it like other traumatic events yet) *has already happened*.
We can’t look at it as something that is coming; that will break us.
We are starting today.
We are starting now, with the knowledge that our reality is going to be different, and sometimes ugly and uncertain, and we’ll have to sacrifice a lot of the privileges we have shared as groups or an entire society.  None of us chose where or when we were born, we’ve been lucky to enjoy these experiences enough to feel their lack.  But, trust me, we can survive with less. I’ve always discovered that I can survive much more than I ever would have imagined.  And things change, we’ll grow and adapt to this. 
But, in each moment, we must look only on how to move forward from where we are today.  Some days we’ll jump.  Somedays we might slowly budge forward.  Somedays, we may stumble.  We keep going. 
The past still serves a purpose.  We will carry with us the good, our experiences, our knowledge and skills and compassion. We will carry with us pieces of those lost.  We can use past frameworks as the foundation of what we will build, but we can’t use it to justify building walls; only the future *we build now* can provide shelter and hope.  But what *needs* to change in existing systems to accommodate these shifts.  What can we work on *now* to protect and address issues of mental health/coping, sustaining behavioral changes that will last indefinitely, providing access to healthcare, needs, education, accurate information, and family supports.
Today.
We start today. 
We keep going…through indefinite todays, doing what we can with what we have in each moment.
We’ll help those who stumble.
We *are* moving through this together.
And, together, we need to have conversations about how we walk into a sustainable tomorrow.

Fine Art and Illustration