Soul Gardens and Dream Spaces -- or how to cultivate a healthy relationship with the news if you're a Sensitive

Red Dahlia by Jennie Marie Schell 

 There are days, no WEEKS, that I just cannot stomach the news. I try to stay informed but the constant barrage of dead children, abused animals, apartment fires, blown up kindergartens (this morning from China), and our own government continually working against 'we the people' feels like the death of a thousand cuts to my soul.
  I sit at 'my spot' at the dining room table, coffee in hand, and try to be an 'adult'; I catch up on emails (70% of which are spam), return those that need my attention, check my digital and paper calendar, pay what bills I can and attempt to stay informed but what I really want to do is lay on my back in the tall grass of a secluded meadow and watch clouds float by over head. And as I mentally add lemonade and a nice blanket to this internal dream space  the next news story is about ticks and lyme disease.

*sigh*

I add a spray can of poisonous Deet to the image and move along to updating business pages.....

  I am seriously considering hacking away at my on line preferences to show ONLY happily adopted children and animals, couples celebrating 75 years of a joyous marriage or relationship, what colors to paint a room, decorating journals, and food porn. I just don't know if 'staying informed' is healthy any more... at the same time I wonder if running from the on-going insanity is giving up and allowing it all to continue.
  Should I be a warrior or an escapist? Is there a way to be both???
I mean, can I work in my soul- garden cultivating beautiful flowers AND be strong enough to weather the constant stream of hurtful insanity that seems to flow from every direction? Can I use that garden to filter the stream so that only those insane items I MUST deal with can come through? And how do I determine what those are???

  These words float to the top of my consciousness as I ponder that question :

~Ritual

~Guides

~Meditation

~Yoga

~Art

~Goddess

~Strength

~The Color Red

~Breath

~ Ground, Center, Shield


Time to work on my Soul Garden. How about you? What will you plant in your's?