When I see the LA wildfires, I remember all the times I thought staying put was the only choice. But itās not. You donāt have to hunker down in a system that doesnāt care about your well-being. You can choose to leave. We did.
The hardest part of being a mom isnāt the daily chaosāitās trying to create stability in an unstable world. Fires, floods, and politics that make you question if the system will ever care about your family. I promise: thereās another way.
If youāve ever taped up your windows to keep wildfire smoke out, sent your kids to school in masks, or had to explain yet another active shooter drill, youāve probably wondered: āIs this what safety is supposed to feel like?ā Itās not. Itās really not.
They say this as if staying and suffering is some kind of moral victory. But hereās the truth: You donāt owe your life to a fight that shouldnāt even exist in the first place.
I used to think staying and fighting for change was the only option. Then one wildfire too many made me realize: I wasnāt protecting my kidsāI was exposing them. Sometimes, the bravest thing you can do is walk away. #leaveamerica#bluecrew
Moms carry the weight of the world. Fires, shootings, toxic air, failing schoolsāyouāre expected to manage it all while protecting your kids. But what if the world didnāt have to feel this heavy? What if there was a different way?
Watching the LA fires, I canāt help but think about the moms out there doing everything to keep their kids safeātaping windows, buying masks, trying to explain why the air smells like smoke. It doesnāt have to be this way. You and your kids deserve better.
Unhappy people donāt lead happy lives, and they certainly donāt create happy societies. If someoneās leadership is rooted in anger and hatred, how could their path lead to anything but more of the same?
Hereās the question I keep coming back to: Why follow someone who is so clearly unhappy? Anger, blame, hatredāthose are the traits of someone who has no peace in their life. Why not look to people who exude calm, kindness, and joy instead?
How do you reconcile following a leader who thrives on division when your faith calls you to love your neighbor? Itās not just a contradictionāitās a betrayal of the very values so many claim to hold sacred. {not rhetorical}
Authoritarian leaders thrive on anger, blame, and hatred to rally their base. What blows my mind is that so many religious peopleāwhose faiths preach love, peace, and forgivenessāare the ones falling for these tactics.
Choosing to stay in a place that repeatedly puts your health and safety at risk isnāt resilienceāitās conditioning. My family broke free of that mindset, and itās the best decision we ever made. You can too.
The LA wildfires arenāt just about firesātheyāre about a system that tells you to stay, endure, and pretend everything is fine. Sometimes, the answer isnāt rebuilding or hunkering down. Sometimes, itās leaving. And thatās okay.
Over 4 years abroad, my family has found peace we didnāt know was possible in the U.S. Affordable housing and healthcare. No more shooter drills. The constant need to fight for rights has disappeared. Itās not perfectābut itās calm. And we wonāt go back to the chaos of America.
The U.S. trains you to endure: toxic air, school drills, unaffordable healthcare, climate disasters. Itās a cycle of gaslighting that tells you thereās no escape. But hereās the truth: you donāt have to live like this. You can leave.
Breathable air shouldnāt be a luxury for those with the means to evacuate. No one should have to mask their kids just to survive another day of smoke, drills, or stress. Sometimes the boldest choice is to zoom out and say, āIām done.ā
When I see the LA wildfires, I remember all the times I thought staying put was the only choice. But itās not. You donāt have to hunker down in a system that doesnāt care about your well-being. You can choose to leave. We did.
Two months after evacuating the 2020 Oregon wildfires, we lived in the Dominican Republic. Not years. Not a long-drawn-out plan. We decided & we left. 4.5 years later, weāve lived in 3 different countries & weāll never go back to America. My nervous system has never been calmer.
It was in a Tucson hotel that my husband and I made the decision that changed everything: we were done. No more hunkering down. No more toxic air. No more active shooter drills. No more national gaslighting. We werenāt going to stay and endure anymore.
September of the COVID year, under voluntary evacuation orders, something in me snapped. We left our house in Oregon and drove to my mother-in-lawās county for āclean air.ā Except the smoke followed us. The unbreathable air wasnāt going to stop.