LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Hope Dealer "We're all born to broken people on their most honest day of living And since that first breath we'll need grace that we've never given I am the barely living son of a woman and man who barely made it But we're making it taped together on borrowed crutches and new starts ... my hopes are weapons that I’m still learning how to use right
"Wooden Heart" by Listener
I’m writing in the wake of some terrible tragedies that our country has faced recently. The mass shooting in Buffalo, NY that claimed the lives of 10 and the school shooting in Uvalde, TX at Robb Elementary in which 19 students and 2 educators were killed. These are among 30 similar shootings already this year and amidst bouts of rising crime, inflation, and wars in Ukraine, Mali, and many other places around the world. Violence, famine, war, personal loss and much more is crashing against us all and many have reached or are reaching a breaking point. Open your news app even for a few minutes and you are bombarded by tragedy and hurt. Many of us have experienced pain and suffering of our own. We are being affected by these external circumstances and it is affecting us internally. We are dealing with record levels of anxiety, depression, and mental health issues. In the United States, anxiety is the most common mental illness, affecting more than 40 million adults each year. Data from the National Institute of Mental Health has indicated that about 30% of Americans experience clinical anxiety at some point in their lives. If your chest is tightening up and your breathing has increased you are not alone. You are not broken. You are stressed. You are anxious. You may even find yourself depressed. You have to be able to label what you are experiencing in order to work through it and overcome it.
leadership whether at school or
and you need to know that no
work and we want the best for
matter where you fall on this
them.
spectrum of stress or anxiousness you are not alone.
We should also want the best for
You have someone who wants
ourselves because that in turn
the best for you and your family.
allows us to be the best for
You have someone who cares
others as well.
deeply about your health and wellbeing.
Don’t allow yourself to close up or shut down. Reach out when
Hope is not the absence of fear,
you feel heavy, recognize stress
anxiety, or stress, Hope exists
and be proactive to work
because of these things. Hope
through it. Send a message to a
allows us to see the future for
friend, write down your
what it can be, it is the
thoughts, call someone who has
substance between the facts of
‘been there’. You deserve
what are now and the future we
wholeness and health, and
can’t fully see yet but know is
remember that the goal is not to
out there. When you have hope
be perfect, but to be better.
you begin to speak differently
Better than you were the day or
because you know that words
hour before. Don’t hide from
matter. Words form who we are
hope, it can be one of the best
and have the power of life or
tools you have to fight the wars,
destruction.
violence and stress that is affecting the world right now.
When you need hope it can feel overwhelming and suffocating and you are tempted to withdraw and isolate. Healing from these stressors is not possible in solitude.
Healing happens in community
I want to tell you that you are on
The world needs you and the
my mind and in my heart this
world needs hope. Be a Hope
month. I care about you and
dealer in a world that is in short
your family and I care about
supply.
those under our THE CONNECTION MAGAZINE |
Javier Mendoza JUNE 2022
