Hard to see the light now

Just don’t let it go

Things will come out right now

We can make it so

Someone is on your side

No one is alone

Bernadette Peters singing “No One Is Alone” from Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods

I have been feeling really exhausted and overwhelmed and even fearful lately. The existential weight of it all —and carrying the weight for what feels like a very long time — is a lot. I am not even a health care worker treating unvaccinated people for Covid, or a teacher or student in schools experiencing the scourge of guns, or someone who has lost a friend or loved one to the ravages of a pandemic we continue to endure, or a rape victim in Texas. I am simply someone who pays attention to the suffering of a small portion of my world (as much of my world as my heart can hold). My own little world — the world I touch, taste, see, and feel everyday — is heavy, too. Figuring out work, relationships, health, … can make me want to curl up in a little ball and wait everything out.

I first heard this song as a teenager. Knee deep in the waters of life often bigger than I could hold, this song offered hope. In a way, it embodied everything I needed to hear. The world is complex. We get left, disappointed, deceived, hurt, and all that. Witches can be right. Giants can be good. Someone is on your side. That message is so important right now. The woods of the everyday can feel dark and perilous. Everything seemingly lurks as axes fall and villages burn. Everyday. Again and again. In spite of all that, perhaps because of all that, because we all experience all of it, no one is alone. Truly, no one is alone.