Let me start with a few confessions…

Number 1 was that I meant to publish this yesterday. But Sunday was a busy day for me, so I took my laptop upstairs to finish my post in bed. Bad idea. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you I fell asleep slumped next to my computer with the lights on Oh well…there is always tomorrow.

Number 2 is that I mostly took a break from my defense of Democracy in December. I sent a few email to Congress and participated in a couple of webinars, but mostly I rested, relaxed, and celebrated the first winter holiday in a with my son being home. The Bible says to everything there is a season, and December was a season of self care, friends and family, and mid-winter holidays rather than activism.

Number 3 is that I did not come up with that brilliant title. Rather, it is the advice from my favorite political guru, Heather Cox Richardson about what the average citizen can do during these troubling times. You can see her version in the video below:

I love this phrase for several reasons. But a major one is that at the Christmas Eve service for my spiritual center, several of us spoke about key spiritual qualities to practice this holiday, and I spoke on Joy. I talked about the difference between happiness and joy. Happiness is an emotion. Like all emotions, it tends to come and go, based usually on material circumstances. Joy, however, is a spiritual quality that is always available to tap into, regradless of the situation.

It is related to the title of my blog, BlissFullU. When my virtual mentor, Joseph Campbell, said “Follow Your Bliss,” he did not mean we should consistently do what makes us feel happy. Let’s be honest…most of us, if we lived that way, would be fat, drunk and/or high, broke, out of work, out of meaningful relationships, and…fill in whatever would be true for you. Following Your Bliss is tough. It’s not always fun and invigorating (at least in the moment) and immediately rewarding. Bliss epitomizes that 1970 song that says “I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden.” For me, at least, all the things that bring me bliss require a lot of work, a good amount of disappointments, and some degree of hurt. Perhaps the thing that has brought me the most bliss has been being a mom. But even though I love my son and I love motherhood with my entire heart and soul, was it easy all the time? NOOOOOO! But even during the times of worry and pain and strife, I tried to remind myself that being a mother brought me joy, regardless of how unhappy I might be feeling in that moment.

That is my way of Following My Bliss even when the state of my life seems miserable and a giant mess.

So a rested and reinvogorated me got back on my Defend Democracy bandwagon last week. This is what I did to comply with her request to “do this to the extent that you possibly can.”

• I taught at the school where I substitute regularly for 2 days, including the very first day back (because if we don’t raise/teach the children right, what is all this even for?). That was Monday and Wednesday.
• I wrote to my 2 Republican Senators 3 times! On Monday, I wrote about Congress standing up to the President’s invasion and determination to “run Venezuela” (when we aren’t do such a great job of running our own county). Wednesday, I expressed my anguish about the death of Renee Nicole Good and my desire that Justice be served in her case. Friday, after the House of Representatives passed a 3 year extension of Health Care benefits/subsidies, I shared how much our health care payments were likely to go up and urged them to join the bipartisan effort in the Senate to pass some health care payment relief.
• I wrote once to my Democratic US Representative. I agree with most of her positions, so I don’t feel the need to contact her as much. But after a few sucesses in the House, I just wrote to acknowledge that and to thank her for her stand for Democracy, which I’m sure is exhausting in the current state that the US House of Representative is in.
• On Tuesday, I wrote a blog post about my sadness and horror at how The White House and friends were trying to convince us that the assult on the US Capitol on September 6, 2021 was a “day of love” and not a violent act of insurrection. As a literature teacher, I HATE feeling like I’m living in the dystopic novel by George Orwell, Animal Farm. But I also wrote about the restorative power of soup and how I used that to Follow my Bliss by focusing on the fact that Democracy Prevailed and focusing on what there is to celebrate about that day. If you missed it, you can read it at: https://blissfullu.com/2026/01/07/remembering-the-truth-of-january-6-through-software-storytelling-and-soup/.
• On Thursday, I responded to a friend’s invitation to an emergency “Rapid Response Call” webinar by Indivisible via Mobilize.us discussing reactions and opportunities to respond to “ICE Killing and Lawlessness in Minneapolis.”
• On Friday, for the first time ever, I attended the weekly Freedom Friday protests sponsored by Cary Indivisible at the intersection of Academy Street and Kildaire Farm/Dry Avenue by the Cary Arts Center, Cary Regional Library, and the new Cary Downtown Park (the picture above is my sign highlighted against the Arts Center). Now, THAT was Fighting Back with Great Joy. It was an unseasonable warm day. We had about 50 people, all with unique signs. AND, someone brought a sound system, so I spent the entire 75 minutes dancing to songs mostly from the 60s-80s. Plus, of course, holding up my sign and waving to cars driving by–many of whom honked in solidarity. It was my best aerobic workout of the week! Talk about a win-win!
• On Saturday, I went to my beloved Cary Farmers Market, even though there isn’t a lot of non-meat (son is vegetarian) meal ingredients in January. But I try to support the venders there as I can. I did buy some FABULOUS fish and beautiful free-range chicken eggs. Plus, mushrooms for my son (I’m allergic to mushrooms). I hung out with friends and it was lovely. But that afternoon, I went to a pop-up rally called “ICE Out for Good” organized by, I think?, Cary Indivisible. No music this time, but once again, the energy was so great. Protesters were calm but engaged and there was SO MUCH honking from the cars driving by. Sources say there were 700 people there, which is pretty good for a protest with only 2 days notice. We waved to cars, whether they showed support, showed opposition (VERY few), or showed nothing. I was there for an hour and 45 minutes, for a total of 3 hours of protest time this weekend.

In short, I did my best to live up to HCR’s advice. Not going to hit those targets again this week. But it was a wonderful kick-start to my Defend Democracy 2026 Bliss!

Still, all of those things took time, effort, and energy (hence my falling asleep last night before I finished this post). If there are four external pillars of Bliss for me, they are my friends and family, my communities (primarily my spiritual community and my Farmers Market community), my students, and my country and its democratic principles. So I’m willing to spend significant amounts of all my resources to defend, protect, love, and advance those things. It serves them, but also serves me and my Bliss.

One of the overlaps between my priorities is political activism and my spiritual beliefs. One of the truisms in our faith is “For something, against nothing.” That is to say, we like to advocate what we want rather than focusing on what we don’t want. So I try to make my protest signs positive. Like I’m PRO DEMOCRACY, not ANTI…fill in the blank.

So my sign was JUSTICE 4 RENEE GOOD. Shouldn’t we all want that? Want Justice? The Merriam-Webster definition of Justice is “the process or result of using laws to fairly judge cases, redress wrongs, and punish crimes.” And in my mind, Justice for RMG is also justice for ICE agent Jonathan Ross, the man who shot Renee Good.

I personally disagree with those who call Jonathan Ross a murderer. Murder, at least in the US, is a criminal charge and should only be used after the legal process has determined that the charge is valid. And in our US system, defendants are considered to be innocent unless proven guilty. Like most Americans at this point, I’ve seen the videos and I have my opinions. But I stand for us considering Jonathan Ross innocent until a court of his peers decides otherwise. Because that is what it means to stand for the rule of law. We can’t just use it for stands or people we agree with. We have to use it universally.

So Justice for Jonathon Ross.

But here’s the problem. At least the initial response by the Trump Administration has not been one of seeking Justice. Shortly after the tragedy, Head of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, appeared on camera wearing a RIDICULOUS hat! It was a hat that was an insult to the severity of the situation. Some news sources said she was advised to leave off the hat, but she didn’t. Apparently she is following President’s Trump’s example of not listening to anyone who opposes what he wants to do, even when it’s in his best interest.

Anyway, she said things like “they (ICE Agents) were attempting to push out their vehicle (from the snow) and a woman attacked them” and “this act of domestic terrorism to use your vehicle to try to kill law enforcement officers is going to stop.” President Trump posted “the woman driving the care was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self defense. Based on the attached clip, it is hard to believe he is alive, but is now recovering in the hospital.”

We can have different interpretations of the video we’ve seen. But I find it hard to believe that anyone really believes she was violently attacking the ICE agent. He was clearly NOT run over. And since the video shows him walking away….it is hard to believe that he was sent to the hospital to recover.

So once again, this feels like Animal Farm (again, see my previous post at: https://blissfullu.com/2026/01/07/remembering-the-truth-of-january-6-through-software-storytelling-and-soup/.). We can all see the video. We can interpret it differently. But they are trying to sell us on a narrative that is divorced from the reality we see on not just one, but multiple videos.

Not to mention, if you are seeking Justice, your top officials are not on TV or social media telling a biased story about what happened. Nor are they refusing to allow state or local law enforcement agencies access to the evidence, as this Adminstration is doing although that has never been the practice in previous cases.

In short, I think it honors Renee Good to seek Justice on her death using the rules of law that I believe she died trying to defend. It’s easy to think we know from our perspective on the videos we’ve seen, but a court case provides much more information on the situation that allows a more fair and more considered decision. I will hold Jonathan Ross innocent until proven guilty. And I will pray for both families, who I believe are suffering, albiet for totally different reasons.

So maybe all that is not joy. But it is a fierce commitment to believing in our laws and our systems of Justice, over public opinion based on the limited videos we’ve seen online. By combining both values, it’s been a pretty good week.

May this week be a little easier to Follow Our Bliss, whatever that means for each of us.