What Does It Mean to LIVE, dammit!?

When the “shock and awe” of the headlines grows overwhelming – when your personal challenges threaten to pull you under – when All Of It crushes even your will to live – what do you do?

Indulge in food, wine, social media or other comforts?Journal or talk with a friend? Sing, dance, or play out your feelings on an instrument? Go for a walk or a run? Turn to Spirit for comfort? Curl up in bed and cry?

These responses—whatever form they take—aren’t random. Whether your self-care reflex leans toward distraction, expression, or release, it’s part of how you’ve learned to survive the unbearable. And over time, with support, it evolves…

Because as unique as your response may be, you’re not alone. In our own ways, we all pick up and go on, learning to reduce distress, find meaning, affirm our voices and lives, and move forward to create positive change.

Viktor Frankl: Ultimately (we) should not ask what the meaning of Life is, but rather must recognize that it is (we) who are asked. In a word, each is questioned by Life, and we can only answer to Life by answering for our own life: to Life we can only respond by being responsible.

If we’re stubborn, determined, resourceful, and lucky…if we’ve amassed a well-stocked psychological toolbox…if we have family, friends, therapists or other healers supporting us…we weather the storms.

And every storm adds a new tool, a new perspective, a new practice, new wisdom.

Michael Meade wrote: Something deep in the human soul awakens as things fall apart. Something in the soul knows that everything in this world can become lost. And something in the soul knows how to survive periods of devastation, disorientation and loss.

On this site, we gather to share the tools, the practices, the wisdom that keep us alive. That “something in your soul” is recognized and welcomed and honored here.

LIVEdammit is about sharing the stories, resources, and practices that keep us alive—affirming each of us in the struggle, however it takes shape.

Do you have a story to tell of turning away from the void and toward the light? Whether it’s a small step or a life-changing moment, I’d love to hear it. Contact me, please!

Together, we’re still standing.