Warning: this article contains one lonely little F-bomb.

I am tired out by the world, lately.

This happens sometimes, when I am feeling extra sensitive, every piece of news pummels me and sticks to me like I am fly paper.

Today I am tired out by the news that the Antarctica ice sheet is melting, which promises an increase of between four to 10 feet of sea level. By the idea that a newspaper editor can be immediately fired just for asking to be paid the same as her male peers.

By this headline, “Alberta selling mountain caribou habitat”, which confirms that (at least!) one province in my country doesn’t care about endangered species, it just wants money from developers.

Don’t get me wrong, I have met some magical people on this earth and I am very happy to be here and I know how lucky I am—

—but sometimes I just don’t know what to do.

To do with all this anger and wantingtochangetheworld.
The wanting to heal it, to fix all the things, and not knowing how.

When I get disheartened, I do lots of things for self care, but one of the best things I do is look to the people who are often wiser than me for guidance and a hand to hold in the darkness, so with that in mind:

Here’s to tying a knot into our own ropes and hanging the fuck on.

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”
~ Eleanor Roosevelt

“The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places.” ~ Ernest Hemingway

“Your present circumstances do not determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start.”
– Nido Qubein

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.
– Chinese Proverb

“You will learn a lot about yourself if you stretch in the direction of goodness, of bigness, of kindness, of forgiveness, of emotional bravery. Be a warrior for love.”
~ Cheryl Strayed

Never give up on something that you can’t go a day without thinking about.
~ Unknown

People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing—that’s why we recommend it daily.
~ Zig Ziglar

When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.
~ Harriet Beecher Stowe

Never forget: this very moment we can change our lives. There never was a moment, and never will be, where we are without the power to alter our destiny.
~ Steven Pressfield

The one thing that will make a difference right now? Start telling the truth. (You know the one—it nags at you and you feel it in your heart. Something isn’t quite right in your life and the only way to set yourself free is to fling open the closet door and set those skeletons free.)
~ Bryonie Wise

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Editor: Catherine Monkman
Photo: Evil Erin, Flickr Creative Commons