I used to work in a behavioral health hospital. It was interesting and challenging work. Most of the time, things were relatively quiet. There were days, though. Sometimes patients acted out violently toward another patient or toward staff. Sometimes patients shared difficult bits of their stories with us. Then there were the days that were tough for all kinds of little reasons.

One of the things I did to cope with this was a practice of letting go. At the end of the night, I would remove my ID badge, hung on a lanyard around my neck. I visualized the experiences of the day, the stories I heard, and all the little frustrations being attached to my lanyard. As I took it off, I would set all these things aside. When I picked my lanyard up again, on my next work day, many of my stresses had shaken themselves loose, and I didn’t pick them up again. This wasn’t a perfect system. There were experiences and stories that stayed with me, intruding into my off-time. Nevertheless, the practice helped.

What do we do when the stress pervades our days? When there are not set on and off times? What do we do when a global pandemic begins its third year? What do we do with all the stress – the anger, the fear, the sadness?

Might there be a ritual, similar to my lanyard letting go, for our emotions? A practice of processing the feels as we become aware of them? Or a way to acknowledge the feeling in the moment until we have more bandwidth or time? “Hello, anger. I see you. Let’s talk at 5.” Perhaps we practice a communal lament, every Tuesday at 3.

I don’t know what the answers will be. I simply want to share the questions. I know that when I worked at the hospital I went on a lot of walks, I moved my body. I prayed. I practiced acknowledging the limits of what I could control. I talked about my emotions. I met with a community and talked about how we wanted to be in the world.

Whatever it is we do to lead us – as individuals, as communities, and as nation – toward healing, it will be a combination of individual and communal work. It will take time. It is something for us to choose. May we choose well.