Hello friends,
Doing a quick November check-in from the nation’s capital. I don’t know how this month feels where you are—I can guess—but it’s been a tough couple of weeks here. More than 90 percent of voting Washingtonians went for Harris/Walz. No shocker there—this liberal and progressive city always votes blue, for reasons that make historical, political, and demographic sense, though the red team did a little better than usual this time around.
The day after the election, I walked around my Capitol Hill neighborhood and could feel the shock, disappointment, and anxiety settling over everything like wildfire smoke. Near my favorite coffee shop, a woman had pulled her bike over for a cry. Maybe her heartbreak had nothing to do with the election results, but I wouldn’t have blamed her if it did.
I started to write about the peculiar fix Washingtonians find ourselves in, living as we do in a congressionally disenfranchised city, but that’s sad and familiar territory. So instead I’ll share some of what I’ve done this month to regroup post-election and prepare as best I can for whatever’s coming.
Leaving the leaves. More active than it sounds, this involves a lot of strategic raking and arranging. It plays well into my gardening-for-wildlife approach—beneficial insects overwinter in the leaf litter, and the yard miniecosystem will be more robust next year as a result—and I hope the neighbors don’t find it too weird or unruly. It’s a pretty tolerant block.
Deleting 15 years of tweets (I’m using TweetDelete to zap them, and it’s a slow but satisfying process) and relocating to Bluesky, which has a good feel so far. (Find me there.)
Skimming headlines and muting certain voices/terms on social media. Highly recommended if you want to have some peace of mind. It feels like a survival skill these days. The news will find you, so pace yourself if you can.
Listening to audiobooks, including Meditations for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman, read by the author, and The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, read by Ian Holm.
If you have sanity-saving, soul-soothing tips to share, I’d love to hear them.
Thanks for reading,
Jen