Enough

Yesterday at work, we took a short break and had some tea. It was a nice little social. Everyone chatted about cases. It was just a bunch of woman lawyers (almost everyone on our floor in mental health law is female) communing with one another over tea and scones and my friend's evil yummy cinnamon rolls (I had only a tiny bite of one).

It made me remember why I love community. It's healing. It's fortifying and inspiring and it's why I write. Everything is so confusing and contentious right now. From politics to the economy and inflation to the carceral system I work within. It's all so stressful. But community helps. It really does. 

It's 4 am. I'm thinking about my mother who just fell but is doing okay. My dog who is struggling health wise and of course, about all my clients who are suffering. My empathy is a good thing but it makes it hard to let it all go.

There are days I no longer want the stress of my work. I won a big battle yesterday for my program, but another is looming in the distance. It never stops. The briefs. The argument. 

The work is getting harder as I get older. But sometimes, I have to be content with what I can do as one person working in a broken system. Yesterday, I got an elderly, transient man services and housing through the county (county mental health did the hard work) and a dismissal of his multiple misdemeanors. 

Sometimes, that has to be enough.