The Media Sucks. Or Does It?

Most of you who know me pretty well, know that I tend to stay off Facebook, avoid the news - on television, radio, or any such device - and generally stick to myself.

I'm just too sensitive and don't always have time or want to take the time or want to be bothered or inconvenienced, by the feelings that get triggered in me when I'm exposed to the news. I've got plenty of feelings to deal with, just living my life and tending to what's mine to tend to. I don't see the point in adding extra drama to the mix.

While most of the time, this approach feels like good self-care, I sometimes wonder if I'm missing out on (or avoiding) some pretty rich healing opportunities.

Like today when I was looking at my Weather Channel App. (It's actually one that I monitor closely, and sometimes get hooked by the news stories there).

There was a video of a dog, hiding in the ashy remains of a burned out house in Greece. "Ninety-one dead," they said and not sure who the dog belonged to and whether or not his owners were alive, and a young girl speaking in soft sweet tones, cajoling the dog to come out. She might have been speaking Greek, but my heart understood every word she said, and I sat down at the kitchen table, with my head in my hands, and cried - cried for the people in Greece, cried for the people in California, and cried because there are fires and floods and devastation and loss.

And yet somehow strangely, I felt myself soothed, as I opened my heart, acknowledged my humanness, and joined the dance.