Finding peace in a time of chaos

I knew something was breaking when my friends started posting more pet photos than usual. Don't get me wrong, anybody worthy of my inner circle generally comes with four-legged pals, so that's not unusual, but in a week full of Epstein files, Olympic gold medals and the usual White House ragers, what was plastered wall to wall on my social media feeds? A lot of animals. Old ones, baby ones, sweet ones, fat ones that snore. Three-legged ones, one-eyed ones, all beloved. Cranky ones that steal people food right off their owner's plates without shame (cats), sneaky ones that steal people food right off their owner's plates with horrendous guilt (dogs). We all know both will do it again. By the night of the State of the Union address, it was obvious that most everyone I know was pointedly ignoring it. Two days later, I was staring at the ceiling while my hairdresser shampooed my poor hair, as weary as the rest of me, tired of this winter, this weather, this head cold I have had since forever. "What are you hearing these days? What are your clients talking about in your chair? What're the hot topics around the salon?" I asked, genuinely curious. Headlines tend to rule my days but America has become such a precarious country that living unaware of what's happening is not an option any more. Volatile leadership leaves everybody not knowing day to day what changes will effect businesses, laws, and lives. It is no surprise that mental health experts have warned for months that America is one of the highest stressed nations in the developed world. A whopping 73 percent of American adults reported feeling elevated levels of anxiety last year due to the U.S. political climate, feeling anxious exhausted, or angry, according to a Navigator poll. Another 67 percent of us reported feeling anxious about global events — like concerns about the economy, safety and climate change — according to the American Psychiatric Association's annual mental health poll for 2025. And 70 percent of us reported high levels of financial anxiety, according to Harbor Mental Health's 2025 poll. Yeah. I am not one bit surprised by any of that, are you? Every single one of these conversations I've had with my people as we've watched jobs lost and not found, people we know struggling, tariffs destroying entire industries and people's hopes. The school district is my town — probably yours too — is panicking and losing staff because the state of Ohio is routing a lot of my money — and yours too, if you pay taxes here — to private schools and siphoning it away from public schools it is required to support. It's the same way our federal government is serving the needs of the wealthy over those of everybody else. Aren't you tired of it yet? Aren't you worn out? And day after day, we get nonsensical social media posts through the night, racist videos and rage-baiting memes. We get non-answers to serious questions of accountability in a sex trafficking case involving children that other countries are not dismissing. I'm so tired of this being passed off as "normal." So I lay back and ask my hairdresser to turn up the temperature of the water and I ask her what people are talking about. A salon is a good place to check the pulse of a people. "Nobody — but nobody — is talking about that State of the Union, even Trump supporters," she said. "People are talking about their cats. Or food. Food we're eating, food we're making. But nobody is talking about — " and she waved her hand around, with a look of disgust on her face — "that. I think we're all just so sick of it, of him." I ask my friends: What are you all talking about these days, what's filling your days? They are setting out seedlings and planning their spring zinnias and veggie gardens, planning their stone carvings when the weather gets warm, reading romance books. One just got back from visiting her firstborn at college, and one is feasting on pasta and margaritas, which made everybody agree that margaritas, were, indeed, a sound idea. A childhood friend said he was finding joy in life "to distract from the crazy" by rehearsing for an upcoming show and taking tap dance lessons. A friend in Texas is packing up her house to sell it and move next door. Another is thinking of all the trips and music festivals she wants to go to and "editing our stuff." "Carrying baggage that no longer serves you is akin to hoarding," she tells me. Another friend calls this her "house diet." She's dropped more than 40 pounds on her physical diet, but she's also on a house diet of purging her home of her unneeded items, too. I'm learning from them. At my house, change is coming like a scattered snowfall and and then all at once, like an avalanche. In the same afternoon I took my daughter to the BMV to renew her temporary permit, she got her fishing license. Two days later she started driver's education classes, spoke with a college rep and this week is taking college and military entrance exams. What about you, readers? What are you talking about? How are you keeping stress at bay? What is bringing you joy, peace, purpose? My email is always listed here if you want to let me know. Until then, in the words of John Lewis, make "good trouble." Contact Chronicle-Telegram columnist Rini Jeffers at rinijeffers@gmail.com.