EMOTIONAL MULTITASKING, YEAR THREE (OR 13, OR 30)

Russia invaded neighboring Ukraine. People were dying and suffering. I did not listen deeply to the news for the first few days. I had a good picture of what was happening, I thought. When I finally did read up, I discovered my assumptions were wrong. I did not know what was happening. 

Can we carry on, seeing both the wreckage and the surf?

But I had to stay away for a few days to keep my own life and work on the rails. 

Somehow I knew the right time to open up the New York Times app and catch up on everything. The invasion. The young president rising to speak. The surprising resistance. The devastating death and refugee exodus. The world united. The blistering economic fallout. 

All of it.

After absorbing it I returned to work again. I felt a cutting awareness that this was a luxury that Ukrainians did not have today, but I opened up my email in a new browser tab and went back to work. 

Since then I have been able to switch between my own small world and the larger world with surprising decisiveness. It is a skill that I developed during the pandemic. When I beheld that vast terrifying world and felt that the hemmed in sense of isolation, I could really start to lose it. When I noticed what I had right before me to do (edit a doc, pet a dog, make some bread, call a friend) I could manage to move ahead. That awareness seems to become a part of my skillset for surviving and thriving. 

How about you? How are you holding up? Are you able to keep at your normal work and habits?