When the world’s on fire and you’re making toast.
27 January 2026
Is it me, or does the world feel ever-so completely unhinged right now?
People are suffering in ways that are hard to comprehend. Whole populations caught in violence, families buried under decisions they didn’t make, a planet heating up while those with power argue, posture, and dodge responsibility. Watching it all unfold, and seeing the same men (and it is mostly men) still taken seriously as real harm escalates, is deeply unsettling.
And yet. Here we are.
Still trying to live our lives. Still feeding the cat. Still replying to emails. Still wondering what to cook for dinner when it feels like the world’s on fire.
It’s a strange kind of whiplash, being hit by the weight of the world one minute and then realising you’ve run out of clean socks the next. It’s difficult, trying to hold both things at once.
Some days it’s hard to know how to hold any of it.
The not knowing. The fear. The helplessness.
The ache of how wrong it all is, and the wondering what the hell to do about it.
And at the same time, life just… continues. You go about your day. You do what needs doing. All while quietly aware of that knot in your stomach that won’t quite go away.
I don’t think there’s a tidy way to make sense of any of it. But the small, everyday things have helped me feel like the ground’s still there under my feet.
This week, that’s looked like:
– Watching the snow melt off the roof while making a cup of coffee.
– Drinking that cup of coffee.
– My kid piling onto the sofa next to me, completely uninvited, just to be close. I love it when he does that.
– Warm bread. Eating lots of it. With butter.
– Good music.
– Hearing a client tell me they actually took a lunch break this week, or said ‘no’ to something that was draining them, and feeling such a bright spark of pride for them.
– Seeing the light slant across the living room floor in that particular late-afternoon way.
– Dog cuddles.
– Putting fresh sheets on the bed and getting in at 7pm in my favourite pyjamas. Best feeling.
– A long voice note from a friend.
– Homemade soup.
None of this stuff fixes anything, I know. But it reminds me I still care. That I’m not numb. That I’m still here.
What’s been keeping you human recently?
In other news: our new podcast episode is out tomorrow, and it’s a good one. We’re following on from our last episode about burnout and breakdown, and this time we’re talking about what helped, and the quiet, not very shiny ways we started putting ourselves back together. If you’re in it, or just coming out the other side, we hope it helps you feel a bit less alone. You can listen here on Apple Podcasts, or here on Spotify.
Next week’s episode is all about exercise. The messy, complicated, sometimes joyful relationship lots of us have with it, and we’d love to hear from you. If you’ve got a question, a story, or something you want to say or ask us, you can:
– Send us a voice note (just record it on your phone and email it to [email protected]).
– Or send us a written message to the same address.
You don’t need to share your name unless you want to. And if you’re happy for us to use your voice in the podcast, just say so. If not, we’ll read it out instead.