(Photo via Mari Andrew’s My Inner Sky)

No Friday Five again this week. In fact, I didn’t do much writing this week. I hope to get back to writing a bit more next week, but I needed a break. I think many of you understand.

There’s a poem floating around Instagram right now. It goes:

“I am washing my face before
bed while a country is on fire.
It feels dumb to wash my face
and dumb not to.

It has never been this way and
it has always been this way.
Someone has always clinked a cocktail
glass in one hemisphere as
someone loses a home in another
while someone falls in love in the same
apartment building where someone grieves.

The fact that suffering, mundanity,
and beauty coincide is unbearable
and remarkable.”

I was curious about the author. I didn’t see much attribution so if you also saw this quote and resonated it with it, allow me to introduce you to Mari Andrew (although I am confident she doesn’t need much introduction for many of you, as I know you’re familiar with her work). She is a writer, artist and speaker currently based in New York City. The poem above was shared with Self Practice in early 2020, where Mari noted a number of things on her mind at the time. She dives deeper into the juxtaposition of grief and celebration colliding at once, and it’s worth a few moments of your time. I’ve already bookmarked it to revisit on days I know I’ll need it most.

Anyway, that quote sums up why I haven’t been able to write much this week. I’ve been consumed with what is happening in Ukraine so everything else can feel a little pointless at times. Why do you care about what recipes I made this week or the face washes I’m using or the clothes that I’m wearing when the world is burning? I understand life cannot stand still for all, but I’m admittedly a little stuck right now.

I’ve found ways to still be a little creative, mostly on TikTok. I’m trying at least even if it doesn’t feel right.

One thing that did find me this week is a stuffed pale pink bunny. It’s brought enough hope and joy to me already that I can only imagine what it’ll feel like when we finally find the owner.

Here’s what happened: Scout and I were out on a walk. It’s been incredibly nice this week weather-wise so we’ve been going on longer walks, ones that take us down roads and into neighborhoods we don’t always walk down and around. We had just walked down one side street and had crossed to go toward another neighborhood when Scout’s ears perked up. Something was in the street and she was intrigued.

As it turned out, it was this bunny:

The bunny was laying to the side of the road, nearly hit each time a car drove by. We waited until the coast was clear and then we grabbed it. The bunny then made the long walk home with us, hanging under my arm the whole way.

I admittedly thought it’d be easy to find the owner. I thought I’d tweet about it (which I did), post in some neighborhood Facebook groups and voila! We’d have an owner.

As it turns out, it hasn’t been quite that easy. I’ve had a number of people help spread the word (which I so, so appreciate) and I’ve expanded my posts to TikTok, Instagram and now my blog. People have posted in various mom groups around the Omaha metro, I’ve had people tagging local news stations, you name it. It’s a real life Knuffle Bunny and we all just want to see it find its way home.

Maybe the owner will never see any of my messages. Maybe they’ll see them six months from now. Who knows, I guess. What I do know is that I think the pale pink bunny is going to get a washing today, and we’ll go from there. It’ll hang out in our home as long as it needs to and hopefully one day it’ll make its way back to the person who clearly loved it so.

If you or someone you know recognizes this runaway rabbit, you can always reach out to me here.

Take care of yourselves, friends. It’s OK to feel the grief and celebration colliding all at once. Just be sure to take care of yourselves through it. And I’ll update you if the bunny finds its home.

Erin