Broken Ribs and Goodbyes to Mark Zuckerberg

I’m sitting in the hospital ER exactly one week after leaving the hospital to the day my mom passed away. (I will write more about that later, but my brain can only handle so much right now.) My brother-in-law took a hard tumble and we are waiting to hear if he has any broken bones. He‘s in pain and not very happy, but grateful it’s not worse. (Edit: He fractured several ribs and he is home and sleeping in the armchair next to me in his room. Also? Pro Tpi: Don’t break your ribs when the hospital is full - they kick you out with a pain pill as nicely as possible, but they kick you out fast.)

I had just gotten my website and blog up right before this his fall happened. I am getting off of Facebook and Instagram because I simply cannot give Mark Zuckerberg any more of my attention or money. I am so tired of ruthless billionaires who put the mighty dollar over human compassion and empathy. I STRONGLY encourage all of you to read Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams and maybe you will decide you don’t need Facebook or Instagram anymore either - or perhaps need it less.

I’m trying out Blue Sky, but not sure how much I’ll be on it. My user name is michellenschmidt if you want to follow me there.

Lately I see the news and become more and more broken-hearted and I feel helpless as to what I can do. Then I realized that I have all the power. I am in control of ME. I get to choose what media I consume. I get to choose what values are most important and find who aligns most with what I believe in. I certainly don’t want to be in an echo chamber of my own opinions, but the false memes, graphics, and ‘facts’ both liberal and conservatives were posting on FB without fact-checking any of it was going to make my brain explode. The lack of personal responsibility on what one shared on Facebook was appalling to me. And FB letting the highest bidder post absolute lies and falsehoods that literally have altered the public’s perception of the truth and being able to recognize the truth - well, I’ve finally had enough.

It feels like going back time writing this blog. Before any behemoth social media platforms, I had a little blog where I wrote down my thoughts and feelings as I was going through a divorce over 20 years ago and a little pet portrait business. Trust me when I tell you that you will want to start following me NOW because the TEA WILL BE SPILLING about my ex husband on here. But there is a place and time for everything and while this will be the place, now is not the time.

Life is coming full circle and I guess that’s pretty much the point of life. It keeps teaching us lessons we must learn again and again again. Life isn’t perfect and it isn’t meant to be. There’s no destination that we get to and it suddenly all gets easier. There’s only noticing the tiny little perfect moments in between the chaos. In those moments is where we find joy and peace.

I can’t wait to post about how my mom has been giving me so many messages from the other side, I’ll do that soon.

I hope you’ll follow my blog, visit my website at michellenelsonschmidt.com and see the little Happy Makers I’m creating and hope you will become a part of MY online life that I get to be in control of — not anyone else. I’m happy to grow slowly and organically and in whatever time frame I want and need to.

Oh, and I promise that you will always leave my tiny digital part of the world a little bit happier. Promise.